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Division |B ) 35 
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BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EARLY ADOLESCENCE 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF 
LATER ADOLESCENCE 


By / 
E. LEIGH MUDGE 










totter p 
AGE ; 
hy 4 


XS 
JAN 21 1929 
- 
iy L + 4 iN 
iy Ui ate Inara EWS 
uIUAL OLN 
A Textbook in Teacher Training, conforming to 
the standard outlined and approved by the Inter- 
national Council of Religious Education 


THIRD YEAR SPECIALIZATION SERIES 


Printed for 
THE TEACHER TRAINING PUBLISHING 
ASSOCIATION 


by 
THE CAXTON PRESS 
NEW YORK 


Copyright, 1926, by 
E. LEIGH MUDGE 


All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign 
languages, including the Scandinavian 


Printed in the United States of America 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 
PETIA TERE UOLESCHMCE oo oc atte ate tn eae e see nie oi e%e 7 

II. DEVELOPMENT TOWARD ADULTHOOD ..........., 19 
Tee OE MDEAT SOF 8 YOUTH coy cha, aale esc icbiiacnce ces 35 
LV oeUPRELING YAND EMOTION: oreo. uetsine tej cgels 48 
VoUIBESROMANTIC PERIOD Hs oS Oey as 60 
Vit DOCTAL MOS UREOPMENT.,. teidaicid 4's Wak « Sleleate eos ale 72 
VII. THe PiAy LIFE oF LATER ADOLESCENCE........ 86 


VIII. THE HARMONIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY 99 
POP OUTHOANDELAFE | WORK 6.) 0000 0b eb ce cle Le cas 113 


DER ELIGIOUS LUXNPERIENCE, . o.6 00:5 o!d 0 ol2sid sania hepa 130. 


SPECIALIZATION COURSES FOR TEACHERS OF 
INTERMEDIATES, SENIORS, AND 
YOUNG PEOPLE 


Conforming to the Standard Approved by 
the International Council of 
Religious Education 


Intermediate Department Specialization 
A Study of Early Adolescence (one unit). 
Intermediate Materials and Methods (one unit). 
Intermediate Department Administration (one unit). 


Senior Department Specialization 
A Study of Middle Adolescence (one unit). 
Senior Materials and Methods (one unit). 
Senior Department Administration (one unit). 


Young People’s Department Specialization 
A Study of Later Adolescence (one unit). 
Young People’s Materials and Methods (one unit). 
Young People’s Department Administration (one unit). 


Electives for Intermediate, Senior, and Young People’s 
Workers 


Materials and Methods of Worship for Intermediates. 
Materials and Methods of Worship for Seniors. 
Materials and Methods of Worship for Young People. 
Supervision in Adolescent Education. 

Agencies for the Religious Education of Adolescents. 
Materials and Methods of Vocational Guidance. 


CHAPTERS 
LATER ADOLESCENCE 


THE title of this book does not mean that it contains: 
a system of psychology to be accepted ready-made. Its 
purpose is, rather, to lead you who read it into the 
profitable study and observation of the young people 
with whom you are working. In so brief a text it is 
possible only to suggest problems in the psychology 
of youth that may be most profitably studied by adult 
leaders, and to show some practicable ways of studying 
them. 

The psychology of later adolescence, like the study 
of all developing life, is itself in the process of growth. 
We have been studying children for some years, and 
the wonderful unfolding of adolescent traits and pow- 
ers in the early teens has also engaged our attention. 
Perhaps it is natural that the study of later adolescence 
has been delayed, since many of the students of the 
leadership of youth are themselves but few years, if 
any, past this period. But workers with young men 
and women from the age of about eighteen through 
the earlier twenties must understand the natures of 
these young people, their likenesses and their differ- 
ences, their characteristic tendencies and their inter- 
ests, their possibilities and their limitations. Among 
the peculiar dangers to be avoided in the study of later 
adolescence is that of mistaking the traits of one most 


7 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


familiar group for the traits of young people generally. 
Those who have been working with college students 
have this temptation. They are familiar with the life 
of the students in their classrooms, but these are a 
highly specialized and favored group. Their average 
intelligence is probably higher than that of the mass of 
young people, and their different social conditions have 
modified their habits and behavior. Perhaps the col- 
fege student is much like the average young person, 
but that is by no means a foregone conclusion. It is 
hoped that you will cooperate in the study of young 
people so as to work out this and other problems to 
your own satisfaction. It has been the author’s desire 
to secure from various groups data that may contribute 
to our understanding of the influence of social environ- 
ment upon developing youth. 

Adolescence, like ancient Gaul, is divided into three 
parts. Early adolescence is the period of strong but 
vague new impulses, bewilderingly mingled with the 
characteristics of childhood, and covers approximately 
the years from twelve to fourteen. Middle adolescence 
is the period of the development and organization of 
these impulses, with corresponding rapid variation 
from the childhood traits, extending from about fifteen 
to about seventeen. Later adolescence, from about 
eighteen to adult life, is the period of adjustment and 
harmonization of the adolescent impulses leading nat- 
urally to the relatively fixed disposition and character 
of the adult. These three periods have been called the 
ferment stage, the crisis stage, and the reconstruction 
stage.! 

Cutten, The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity, p. 275. 

8 


LATER ADOLESCENCE 


PERIODS OF ADOLESCENCE 


It should not be imagined that these periods are 
disparate units in a chain of age groups. They are, 
rather, the connected stages of a continuous growth 
process. 


The more we know about human nature, the more 
are we convinced that development is a continuous 
process. The child is, it is true, different from the 
youth, and the youth from the man, but these differ- 
ences have come about through infinitely minute 
gradations rather than by great leaps. Much has been 
made, for instance, of the difference between the reli- 
gion of the child and of the youth, and yet everything 
to be found in the moral and religious point of view of 
the youth had its beginnings and its incubation in 
childhood. There is no abrupt shift from one to the 
other. This does not mean, of course, that no time of 
life has any striking or distinctive characteristics. We 
are striving, rather, to emphasize the fact that what 
we always find, when we look carefully, is continuity 
in development rather than abrupt transition.? 


Although the shift from the characteristic attitudes 
of middle to those of later adolescence is gradual, any 
high-school or college teacher recognizes a real dis- 
tinction. Although they have much in common, the 
high-school boy and the college youth have character- 
istic differences, and the girl of sixteen recognizes a 
wide social and individual gap between the girl of 
twenty and herself. 

The distinction between middle and later adoles- 
cence is not an arbitrary one. The end of the former 





2King, The High School Age, copyright, 1914, p. 67. Used by 
special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company. 


9 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


period marks the completion of the bony growth of 
the body. The stature of adult life is attained perhaps 
a year earlier by girls than by boys, for the average 
girl is somewhat ahead of the average boy of similar 
age throughout adolescence. Physiologically a girl is 
older than her twin brother because she matures faster. 
It is not an accident that the average wife is somewhat 
younger than her husband. 

Conditioning factors.—Cutten locates later ado- 
lescence at seventeen to twenty-one in females and 
eighteen to twenty-four in males. There is some war- 
rant for this distinction, but for convenience in classi- 
fication and with the above facts in mind, we may 
treat the period from eighteen to twenty-four as later 
adolescence. Not only is the bony structure of the 
body fully developed at about eighteen but the entire 
organism has reached a rather definite biological ma- 
turity. There is a possible connection between varia- 
tion in the age of maturity and climatic or racial vari- 
ation. In general, adolescence seems to appear earlier 
among peoples living in warm countries than among 
the inhabitants of colder regions. 

But if the organism is biologically mature at about 
the age of eighteen, why should we not term this point 
the beginning of adult life? It must be admitted that 
the location of the end of later adolescence has no such 
clear demarkation as its beginning. Youth gradually 
merges into adulthood. It may be also admitted that 
there is a sense in which the setting apart of this 
period is artificial. It is largely the result of social 
forces which have long been at work increasing the 

.* Cutten, The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity, p. 275. 
10 


LATER ADOLESCENCE 


span of years preparatory to the serious responsibil- 
ities of life. 

John Fiske, in his famous essay on “The Meaning 
of Infancy,’ shows that mankind has developed 
through the extension of the period of dependence. 
In some of the lower animals the parent gives abso- 
lutely no care to the offspring beyond the laying of 
eggs. In higher forms there is an increasing period 
of infancy. As the complexity of the organism in- 
creases there is a corresponding increase in the proc- 
esses of development necessary between birth and 
maturity. Finally in man there is a long period of de- 
pendence during which the possibilities of develop- 
ment are increasingly discovered. This process of 
lengthening the preparatory years of life has contin- 
ued through historic times. In early civilization boys 
and girls were introduced to the major responsibil- 
ities of life as soon as they passed the initiation stage 
of puberty. As society advanced the years of prep- 
aration were extended, until, with reference to cer- 
tain responsibilities, American girls have been con- 
sidered competently mature at the age of eighteen. 
Boys become “of age” at twenty-one, and now the 
same age marks the beginning of a girl’s participation 
in political affairs. 

But the social process of lengthening the years of 
preparatory youth goes on, largely an unconscious 
change. The advantages of more adequate education 
are discovered and the college or the technical school 
sets a new limit to the period of youth. In many cases 
the full training of a young person requires the first 
thirty years of life as preparation. This means the 

II 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


social extension of a period that might otherwise end 
much sooner. 

Hence it might be said of later adolescence that it 
represents a socially developed extension of the pre- 
adult age. It is clear that certain secondary traits 
of adolescence may be socially stimulated so that their 
relatively early appearance is forced or they may be 
discouraged and retarded. Thus courtship may be en- 
couraged too early, so that the vague feelings of sex 
attraction in early adolescence may be unwholesomely 
turned into the channels of the courtship expression, 
while, on the other hand, courtships may be socially 
disapproved until late in the period of later adoles- 
cence. Naturally, the development of the sex im-_ 
pulses will be considerably affected by such variations 
of social attitudes. 

But later adolescence is not merely an artificial 
period. Its demarkation from middle adolescence is 
clear, and it is a period which differs considerably, 
whatever the social environment, from adult life. It 
is maturity with a difference and with normal attitudes 
toward life and the world which set it apart from later 
life. With some justice it has been called the infancy 
of adult life. We cannot draw a hard-and-fast line 
between infancy and early childhood; neither should 
we be arbitrary in locating the end of the later youth 
period, but there are certain elements of difference be- 
tween the young man or woman of twenty and one a 
few years older. I hope that all who read this book 
will join in the effort to distinguish these traits of 
later adolescence. 

Later adolescence is the period in which the habits, 

12 


LATER ADOLESCENCE 


ideals, and tendencies which have been appearing 
through adolescence undergo a refining or developing 
process. It is not, like early adolescence, a period of 
newly discovered impulses. It is, rather, a period of 
fixation and harmonizing, organizing and stabilizing 
the character. Having a complete complement of 
instincts, the young man or woman develops and or- 
ganizes them in the direction of the relative fixity of 
adult life. Our experience with mental measurements 
seems to indicate that our fundamental intellectual 
powers are practically mature at the age of sixteen or 
eighteen.* It remains for later adolescence to lead the 
mind into those special activities in which it can best 
function. Through such a specialized narrowing of 
the field of thought the practical power of an intelli- 
gence already developed may be tremendously 1n- 
creased. For example, a boy of sixteen or eighteen 
probably has all the fundamental capacities applicable 
to the study of mathematics that he will ever have. 
But he is not a mathematician. Now he begins to 
specialize in mathematics. By this specialization he 
contracts his field of thought so as to apply all his 
powers of memory, imagination, and perception, with 
such powers for developing motor skills as he may 
have, to the mathematical field. These powers of 
thought and action are not separate parts of his mental 
life so much as distinct phases or attitudes of his mind. 
They have been growing throughout childhood and 
the earlier periods of adolescence. Now, at the thresh- 
old of later adolescence they are essentially mature. 


“Compare The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Mary E. 
Moxcey, Chapter V. 


13 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


The youth of eighteen who has not hitherto shown any 
mathematical ability will probably never be a mathe- 
matician. But if his elementary capacities are favor- 
able, he may concentrate his powers on mathematics 
and the result will be much the same as we observe 
when the accumulated mass of water in a stream is 
forced into the narrow tunnel that leads to a turbine. 
We have not created power but we have concentrated 
it and made it practically usable. The development 
of mental powers before later adolescence, the special- 
ization process above described, and the resultant men- 
tal efficiency of adult life are graphically illustrated by 
Figure 1. 

Later adolescence is a time for developing and har-— 
monizing all the elements in a life philosophy. Emo- 
tion is now more deeply affected by concepts and the 
processes of reason than ever before. This is the 
time for the adjustment of one’s political, social, eth- 
ical, zsthetic, and religious ideas. This adjustment 
often involves a considerable degree of inner stress and 
strain. Not all the painful readjustments take place 
before later adolescence. Particularly, if one has been 
brought up in an atmosphere of narrow and non- 
progressive thinking, there are likely to be painful 
readjustment problems as one comes into touch with 
new information and broader ideals of life. Happy 
the young man or woman who has learned to hold an 
opinion as a skilled workman holds a tool—firmly, 
that he may use it decisively and effectively, but not 
with such a desperate grip that he cannot let go in case 
another prove its superiority. 

Earlier periods.—To every period the preceding 


14 


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PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


periods are of great importance, for they determine 
very largely the foundation upon which its construc- 
tion must proceed. So a most important condition for 
successful work with young people is a knowledge of 
the environment of their earlier years. A good home 
training back in the years of early childhood, and 
even infancy, is of the highest importance to the young 
man or woman now approaching adult life. It is 
well for workers with young people to know that 
while there are great possibilities of development, most 
of the great issues of life are settled in childhood or 
in the powerful though bewildering currents of early 
and middle adolescence. Later adolescence has been 
compared to the development of a photographic nega- 
tive. It is a critical period. We do not know how our 
negative will turn out. We must handle it carefully. 
But the chief time of decision, of crisis, was when the 
exposure was made. We are dependent for many of 
the conditions of our work with young men and women 
upon others who, in earlier years, determined the 
sights and sounds and ideas and ideals to which they 
should be exposed. We often hear of young people 
going wrong, but in most cases these reached the 
actual forks of the road in the crisis years of middle 
adolescence or in the often unguarded years of early 
adolescence and childhood. Many who deal with de- 
linquent young people either ignore or are unaware 
of these facts. There is, however, an increasing move- 
ment for the prevention of crime through attention to 
childhood and the earlier periods of youth. As one 
member of the staff of a psychopathic clinic expresses 
it, it is better to deal with fireworks on the third of 
16 


LATER ADOLESCENCE 


July than on the fifth. F. Ernest Johnson has said, in 
an address on the moral hazards of child labor: 


Early exposure to an environment in which intel- 
lectual, moral, and cultural excellence are unknown 
and undesired, where shiftlessness and dishonest meth- 
ods of work prevail, where respect for personality is 
seldom found and rough treatment is a common prac- 
tice, and where uncleanness of thought and speech are 
continually in evidence—such an experience if it con- 
tinues long, is almost sure to exact a heavy toll of the 
young life thus imperiled. 


Later adolescence is not an absolute break from mid- 
dle adolescence. Many traits from even earlier periods 
still hold. As an example, there is much in common 
between the sense of honor of the college student or 
the young factory worker and that of early adoles- 
cence. The young collegian who will cheat if the 
professor is watching him like a detective, will be more 
apt to respect his honor when a professor appeals to 
it by leaving the room during an examination and the 
shop employee will likewise respond to the confidence 
of his foreman. In fact, the attitude of these young 
people is not unlike that of younger boys toward 
teachers, parents, and other authorities who must win 
their admiration in order to command their willing 
obedience. 


Problems 


1. Make as complete a list as possible of the char- 
acteristics of (a) early adolescence; (b) middle adoles- 
cence; (c) adult life. 

2. What are the reasons for dividing adolescence 
into three periods? 


17 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


3. What characteristics of your own life can you 
trace back to your childhood? 

4. Make a survey of the educational equipment of 
the young people of your class. Find the average num- 
ber of years of school, counting from the first grade. 
Are there wide variations from this average? How 
should the facts discovered by this survey affect your 
teaching ? 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


The High School Age, King, Chapter V. 

The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity, 
Cutten, Chapter XIX. 

Life and Confessions of a Psychologist, Hall. 

Handbook for Workers with Young People, 
Thompson, Chapter II. 

The Individual in the Making, Kirkpatrick, Chap- 
ter IX. 

The Psychology of Early Adolescence, Mudge, 
Chapter I] 

The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, 
Chapters I and V. 


18 


CHAPTER II 
DEVELOPMENT TOWARD ADULTHOOD 


PuHySICAL DEVELOPMENT 


Earty adolescence is a period of rapid growth, and 
a slower development in height and weight continues 
until about the end of middle adolescence. But at 
the beginning of the later adolescent period bodily 
development is practically complete. Of course there 
are characteristic developments—accumulating flesh, 
changing facial contours, etc.—away into middle age, 
but the youth of eighteen or nineteen may be consid- 
ered an adult so far as general physiological develop- 
ment is concerned. Growth from now on is a process 
of discovering and utilizing the possibilities already 
implicit in the organism, and a sort of hardening or 
fixing process as the nervous system approaches the 
relative fixity and stability of adult life. 

Social factors——There are many elements of devel- 
opment, however, that depend upon training and the 
establishment of good habits. Social factors have 
especially affected the physical development of girls. 
The change from the constricted waists and voluminous 
skirts of the nineties to the relative freedom of the 
apparel of to-day is but one element in the changes 
which have affected the young women of our time. 
Carefully kept records of the physical measurements 
of entering freshmen have been kept by Oberlin Col- 


19 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


lege since 1886. These records show that, although 
the average freshman girl is nine months younger 
than the average of twenty-five years ago she is 1.6 
inches taller, 3.7 pounds heavier, has a lung capacity 
increased by 24.7 cubic inches and a chest expansion 
increased from 1.7 inches to 3.5 inches. Her strength, 
judged by various tests, is 25 per cent greater. In 
the earlier years she gained more than now from the 
regimen of physical education in Oberlin, because she 
had more elements of weakness to be corrected. Al- 
though there is still room for improvement it is clear 
that the young women of to-day, at least in one insti- 
tution, are in better physical condition than were those 
of a quarter-century ago. 

There are various conditions of the nervous system 
and the bodily organs closely related to nervous fune- 
tions which are correlated with the mental characteris- 
tics of the period. A youth of twenty may properly 
be considered a young man, but there is reason for 
emphasizing the “young.” He has not yet passed 
beyond the transitional age of adolescence. He is not 
so impulsive as in early and middle adolescence. His 
conduct is less erratic and more predictable. But he 
has not reached the relatively settled state of the adult. 
He still holds the enthusiasm of youth, often careless 
and free in its manifestations. 


INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 


It is difficult to generalize in describing young peo- 
ple, for all the elements that make for individual dif- 


* The Oberlin Alumni Magazine, October, 1924, p. 6ff. 
20 


DEVELOPMENT TOWARD ADULTHOOD 


ferences are in this period quite thoroughly developed. 
These differences depend very largely upon a variety of 
physical and psychological factors. 

The glands.—One of the very significant causes of 
variation is the variety of development in the glands 
of the body, especially the endocrene or ductless 
glands. These glands secrete certain elements essen- 
tial to health and development called hormones, and 
these are thrown directly into the blood. The fact 
that these hormones control the action of various vital 
organs is well established. Among the endocrene 
glands are the thyroid, thymus, parathyroid, and pineal 
glands, the pancreas, the pituitary body, and the gonads. 
Some of these are small and the functions of several 
of them have until recently been unknown, but appar- 
ently each is essential to healthy life and bodily func- 
tioning. Many of the differences, both physical and 
mental, between individual young people may be traced 
to differing glandular adjustments. Thus the midgets 
of the circus owe their unfortunately arrested devel- 
opment in great degree to abnormalities in the pituitary 
glands. The disease called goiter is due to thyroid 
derangement. 

Among the most remarkable glands in their very 
direct effects upon the body and the mind are the adre- 
nals. These glands, located close to the kidneys, throw 
into the blood a substance called adrenin or adrenalin. 
Such excitement as fear or anger stimulates the dis- 
charge of adrenin into the blood and excites the nerv- 
ous system. The heart muscles are quickly stimulated 
to greater activity and the muscular system is toned 
up. At the same time the activities of the alimentary 

21 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


canal are slowed down and the organs of digestion and 
assimilation are practically thrown out of commission. 

During early adolescence it is probable that the de- 
velopment of these various glands may account for 
many of the shifting and unpredictable impulses of | 
our boys and girls. The sex glands, for example, do 
not reach their full development until some time after 
puberty. During middle adolescence the glands are 
becoming adjusted, and later adolescence sees a still 
further settling-down process as the whole bodily or- 
ganism approaches adult life. 

Instincts.—The complicated nature of an individual 
personality is still further seen in the wide variety and 
development of the instincts or native tendencies 
which have been somehow treasured up in the nervous 
system. There are “instinctive dispositions” which we 
inherit from a complicated and diversified ancestry, 
without which the human organism “would lie inert 
and motionless like a wonderful clockwork whose 
mainspring had been removed or a steam engine whose 
fires had been drawn.” Here is the background for 
an infinity of variation. 

Temperaments.—Upon a basis of physical varia- 
tion, glandular differences, a complex nervous mechan- 
ism and all sorts of physical factors and upon the wide 
variety of hereditary elements that make people differ 
one from another, are built those classified variations 
of personality which we call temperaments. We often 
speak rather colloquially of a jovial temperament or 
an excitable temperament, using the word interchange- 
ably with “disposition.” But students of human na- 
ture ever since ancient times have recognized certain 


22 


DEVELOPMENT TOWARD ADULTHOOD 


major differences between people. They rest upon a 
vast number of conditioning factors, the nature and 
balance of the nervous system, the relative activity of 
the glands, differences in the development of all the 
vital organs, and even upon the development of the 
general muscular system. These physical traits, in 
turn, are derived from a complex variety of hereditary 
factors, modified by early habits and training. Could 
we analyze fully all the physical and mental elements 
thus blended in personality, we could better under- 
stand why one of our students has the peculiar qual- 
ities of leadership, why one is self-assertive, why one 
girl is motherly and protective in her attitude toward 
children, while another has little apparent interest in 
her younger brothers and sisters, and so would be able 
to work with them much more sympathetically and 
intelligently. 


INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT 


During later adolescence there is relatively little 
change in the powers of sense perception or imagina- 
tion or memory, but there are very great developments 
in the power of thought. The processes of abstract 
reasoning are active. Now is the time for the study 
of pure science, philosophy, and logic. The intel- 
lectual powers, which have been developing all through 
childhood and adolescence, are now in full vigor. 
Emotions are more controlled and reason and will are 
increasingly dominant. With proper guidance there 
is rapid growth in intellectual powers. Many of the 
enduring works of the world’s literature have been 
written during this period. Many of the world’s great 


23 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


leaders in the sciences of war and peace have assumed 
their leadership at this time of life. . 

The youth movement.—Because of the vigorous 
mental power of this period, its fresh moral insight, 
its tendency to enthusiastic idealism, youth should 
have a large part in the active determination of moral 
and social questions. Adult age is essentially conserv- 
ative. While there are progressive minds in middle 
or advanced life, our chief dependence for intellectual 
and moral progress is on our young people. Therefore 
it is well for us to encourage initiative in them and 
to give them increasing opportunity for self-expression 
and participation in the affairs of state and church 
and the other social groups of which they are a part. 
By those who believe in progress the recent develop- 
ments of what has been called the Youth Movement, 
the discussion by our young people of the fundamental 
problems of social, moral, and religious life, should be 
judged to be thoroughly normal and wholesome. Just 
now, when so many of our theories of social affairs 
have been found wanting, we may well encourage our 
young people to study the more effective application of 
Christian principles to the problems of the world. 


DOMINANT INTERESTS AND IMPULSES 


In order to secure a comparison of later adolescence 
with an earlier period the writer some years ago ques- 
tioned a small group of college students who would 
soon be high-school teachers, with regard to the 
changes in certain interests and impulses. Some time 
later a similar investigation was made regarding the 
experiences of nearly two hundred college students. 


24 


DEVELOPMENT TOWARD ADULTHOOD 


These students were probably all in the midst of the 
period now under discussion. They were asked to 
write on a series of interests and impulses, comparing 
them, so far as their memory would allow, with their 
corresponding interests and impulses at the age of 
fifteen. The results of this inquiry may indicate some 
characteristic developments during adolescence. 

Interests dominant at fifteen.—Judging from the 
memories of these college students, it appears that 
they at the age of fifteen were more interested in pets, 
in the making of collections, in adventure stories, puz- 
zles, and active games than they are at present. To 
be sure, there are considerable variations, a few being 
more interested in pets, for example, than they were 
at the age of fifteen. In general, however, there has 
been a distinct decrease in interest in pets, amounting 
in some cases to an actual antipathy. Some never have 
had this interest, and in a few cases there is an inter- 
est of practically the same intensity. : 

In the case of collections there is a wide shift of in- 
terest from the type of collections made at fifteen. In 
some cases the collecting interest remains quite vigor- 
ous, but there have been decided changes in the things 
collected. The boys and girls who at fifteen collect 
stamps, pictures, souvenirs, and other things of little 
monetary value, now collect books, music, curios, clip- 
pings, fancywork pieces, etc., according to their indi- 
vidual tastes.? 

Interests in which there is little change.—The in- 
terests of these young people in memorizing poems 


2 The author’s study of girls’ collections was reported in the 
Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. XXV, No. 3, September, 1918, p. 319. 


25 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


and in chums of the same sex does not seem to have 
very greatly changed. In the matter of chums, there 
are some very noticeable individual differences, but 
there seems to be a very general agreement that the 
friendships of middle adolescence were more apt to be 
short-lived than those of the later period. 

Interests greater in later adolescence. —There 
seems to be an increased interest in business matters 
in later adolescence over that of fifteen. Some deny 
that they had any interest in business or finance at 
fifteen, although two young men confess to a decided 
interest in boyish mercantile activities which seems to 
them greater than their present interest in business 
and finance. | 

Machinery seems to interest young women fully as 
much as young men, although some young men report > 
a great interest in mechanical apparatus at fifteen. 
One says he was “always working on some sort of 
‘engine, ” and another says that he “always had the 
back yard full of various kinds of mechanical opera- 
tions, such as carpet weavers, incubators, steam en- 
gines, mills, etc.” 

Love stories are of greater interest in later adoles- 
cence, although there is more interest than some would 
suspect in middle adolescence. The later interest in 
love stories is more affected by the literary form, 
the psychological problems involved, and the deeper 
meaning of sex relationships with which later adoles- 
cence has become familiar. 

Visual art and music are likewise of dominant in- 
terest in later adolescence, in most cases, and there is a 
rather general increase in the interest in literature. 

26 


DEVELOPMENT TOWARD ADULTHOOD 


There is an increase of interest in newspapers and pol- 
itics. In most cases there has been a distinct increase 
in interest in social functions. In the recollections of 
one or two of the students, the social functions of the 
age of fifteen involved a nervous strain which is less 
noticeable at the present time. 

Other impulses and tendencies.—These students 
seem to have developed the ability to control their emo- 
tions much more readily than they did in middle ado- 
lescence. With few exceptions, they do not become 
angry so quickly, although several believe that their 
anger lasts longer now than it did at the earlier period. 

Later adolescence appears to be more willing to ac- 
cept authority than the earlier period, many reporting 
decidedly unsubmissive behavior at fifteen. 

At fifteen nearly all these young people are rela- 
tively care-free. In later adolescence they have much 
more vigorous feelings of responsibility. In some 
cases, however, there was rather an abnormal sense of 
responsibility. One young woman says, “I felt that 
the woes of the world were upon my shoulders.” An- 
other says she took responsibility “almost too 
seriously.” Most of these young people feel that their 
ability to fix attention and concentrate their minds 
upon problems has been greatly improved since the 
age of fifteen. 

A considerable number of these young people are 
sure they made no concrete plans for the future at 
the earlier period and the majority are sure that their 
plans now are much more concrete than then. Quite 
generally, however, their memories upon this point 
are indefinite. 


27 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


The climax of adolescence.— Many impulses which 
have had their budding and blossoming, their earlier 
and middle adolescence, now come to a highly vigorous 
development. Thus the spirit of adventure, which has 
had its development in the life of the early adolescent 
boy in relation to a gang and its romantic development 
in the high-school years, now leads young people to a 
high joy in adventure. Life is at full tide, physical 
energy is greater than ever before, the mind is active 
and eager, and enthusiasms demand expression in 
definite activities. Habits are becoming fixed, the emo- 
tions are as strong as ever and an increasing surplus 
of energy tends to find expression in excitement. 
Young people are capable of self-control and normally 
have developed habits of working and studying with 
some regularity. It is not strange that they seek excite- 
ment in the thrills of amusement and larks and adven- 
tures which often distress older and steadier people. 
This indicates a serious need for public interest in 
properly guided recreational amusements. There is a 
pathetic lack of social concern for the search of our 
young people for recreation. Says Jane Addams: 

It is as though we were deaf to the appeal of these 
young creatures; claiming their share of the joy of 
life, flinging out into the dingy city their desires and 
aspirations after unknown realities, their unutterable 
longings for companionship and pleasure. Their very 


demand for excitement is a protest against the dullness 
of life to which we ourselves instinctively respond. 


Contradictory characters.—Adolescence as a whole 
is normally marked by the presence of contradictory 
characters or differing and apparently incompatible 

28 


DEVELOPMENT TOWARD ADULTHOOD 


impulses. In later adolescence many of the traits of 
earlier periods remain, while the characteristic tenden- 
cies of adult life are but imperfectly developed. In 
early adolescence we had a relatively rapid change in 
moods and in middle adolescence these moods were 
somewhat longer continued. This tendency to various 
distinct moods persists in later adolescence and is 
marked by the recurrence of periods of joy and melan- 
choly, heightened by the deeper emotional energy of 
this period. 

Seriousness and frivolity—There is noticeable in 
later adolescence a mixture of seriousness and frivol- 
ity, often marked by the alternation of periods of 
hilarious fun and periods of serious feelings of respon- 
sibility. Thus Shakespeare pictures the prodigal 
spirit of young Henry V, who, in the midst of a group 
of enthusiastic youths, revels in the frolics of the Lon- 
don streets, then suddenly breaks with his old asso- 
ciations, pays his last visit to the tavern, cracks his 
final joke and then calls to one of his men, “To horse, 
to horse; for thou and I have thirty miles to ride yet 
ere dinner-time.”’ Thus suddenly the royal vagabond, 
who has not, after all, gone dangerously far into the 
land of prodigality, becomes the patriot and the man 
of action. 

It is possible for the frivolity of youth, unchecked 
by religious and moral training, to lead into a dan- 
gerous “sowing of wild oats.” But in the normal and 
wholesome development of later adolescence there is 
much of the spirit of revelry and active enjoyment. 
Various organizations for young men and women have 
wisely made use of this tendency of young people in 


29 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


their programs. The difference between later adoles- 
cence and adult life is quite clearly indicated by an 
examination of the typical college paper or magazine 
or the local publications of the Young Men’s Chris- 
tian Association. In many of these papers one notices 
a broad type of humor which to an adult may seem 
childish and almost affectedly crude and clumsy. They 
are apt to make elaborate use of circumlocution and an 
uncommon vocabulary and far-fetched puns and in 
many cases this is true of the writings of young people 
who are otherwise capable of restrained and cultured 
expression. 

Irresponsibility—There often remains in young 
people of this period a tendency to carelessness and 
irresponsibility. Many a student is satisfied to get 
through his courses with the minimum of study, cheer- 
fully goes in debt for the things he wants, and is opti- 
mistic regarding the outcome of these carefree actions, 
while at other times he is serious and ready to accept 
responsibility. During the week of examinations he 
is regretful of his past indifferences and faces a period 
of cramming with almost desperate earnestness. In 
many excellent students there are periods of irrespon- 
sibility, and in many careless students there is a strain 
of seriousness to which their teachers may effectively 
appeal. 

Independence.—The development of physical and 
mental powers now approaching their highest point 
naturally leads to a feeling of independence and a sens- 
ing of individual problems, of the final preparation for 
life, self-support, and the growing responsibilities 
which continue into adult life. It is the time when the 

30 


DEVELOPMENT TOWARD ADULTHOOD 


young man or woman must decide how to use life and 
its powers, whether to spend them in riotous living or 
to conserve them for the future. These new respon- 
sibilities are interesting to young people and have the 
thrill of excitement in them. It is a new thing to be 
“on one’s own,” and the experience is interesting, ex- 
citing, and sometimes a bit wearing. With the new 
sense of independence they may develop an attitude of 
anxiety and worry, or a spirit of recklessness, a cau- 
tious dependence upon the advice of trusted friends 
or a resentfulness against the interference of any coun- 
sel, or, better than all of these, they may develop that 
balance between humility and self-reliance which we 
consider good judgment. Young people of this age 
need wise and experienced guides. They need the 
counsel of older people, who will recognize the spirit 
of independent youth and tactfully, without condescen- 
sion, suggest proper courses of action. 

It is very important that young people come into 
close fellowship with older people who have met the 
same problems and have worked them out in harmony 
with a mature philosophy, scientific judgment and reli- 
gious insight. Such sympathetic older advisers will 
realize that the attitude of questioning and doubting 
is a normal element in the process of development. 
Throughout adolescence boys and girls come to exam- 
ine critically the statements of their teachers and their 
parents, and must, in the normal process of things, 
come to their own conclusions. There are many se- 
rious struggles necessary to most young people in 
these later adolescent years. It does not simplify mat- 
ters to advise young people to give no heed to their 


31 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


doubts and accept credulously the teachings of more 
mature minds. They must make their own decisions. 

Developing a life philosophy.—In the period of 
later adolescence a philosophy of life, a practical sys- 
tem of thinking and behaving, becomes crystallized. 
It is a fortunate thing for progress that this period, 
when the direction of life is approaching its relative 
fixation, is the same period in which idealism is at its 
zenith. This means that young people conscious of 
the great problems of life and character, feeling the 
appeal of a call to service for humanity, feeling the 
urge to sacrificial helpfulness, carry into the activities 
of these years the energy for reform, the impulse for 
higher service, which should carry each generation a 
little farther toward the goal of Christian righteous- 
ness than the preceding. 

Enthusiasm for ideals meets a discouraging check 
during this period in the discoveries and disillusion- 
ments which are common. Young people are now com- 
ing into contact with reality, with its unpleasant as 
well as pleasant phases. Sometimes the college youth 
with his weekly check from an unwise father postpones 
the time of adjusting himself to the realities of life. 
But normally in this period both the college student 
and the young man or woman going directly into a vo- 
cation meet a variety of new problems. They find 
themselves in a world of competition, in a world where 
high ideals do not always seem dominant, where hard 
work is necessary and disillusionments must some- 
times be met. Meeting thus the realities of vocational 
and business life many young people are disheartened. 
Their disillusionment may lead to a blasé attitude 


32 


DEVELOPMENT TOWARD ADULTHOOD 


or to self-pity and despondency. It may even lead to 
a complete abandonment of one’s life ideals, to unwise 
marriages, or to suicide. Great numbers of young 
people are facing serious problems the true solution of 
which depends upon a wholesome, reasonable, Chris- 
tian philosophy of life. Most valuable service can be 
rendered by the leader of young people who will 
study their individual problems, social, economic, in- 
tellectual, moral and religious, and lend the influence 
of good counsel to their solution. 


PROBLEMS 


1. Collect student newspapers and magazines. Can 
you judge some of the traits of later adolescence from 
them? 

2. What additional characteristics of later adoles- 
cence have you observed? 

3. What is the effect of the presence of adults in a 
young people’s meeting? 

4. In what particulars do the average college or 
high-school students differ from the general average 
of young people of similar age? 

5. Can you classify your pupils as to temperament ? 

6. To what degree do your memories of your own 
adolescence agree with the characteristics here men- 
tioned ? 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


Handbook for Workers with Young People, Thompson. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey. 

The Psychology of Adolescence, ‘Tracy. 

The Pupil and the Teacher, Weigle. 

The Pupil, Barclay. 

The Individual in the Making, Kirkpatrick, Chap- 
LET Le 


33 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


The Spiritual Life, Coe, Chapter III. 

Psychology: A Study of Mental Life, Woodworth, 
Chapter XXI. 

Social Psychology, McDougall, p. 116ff. 

Introduction to Psychology, Seashore, Chapter XXI. 


GOAPTE RELL 
EH PLORALS: One YOU fra 


In discussing later adolescence we face the same 
danger that has led us to overgeneralize our observa- 
tion of childhood and speak of “The Child.” We must 
not forget that both childhood and adolescence have 
infinite variety. We can only say that there are cer- 
tain traits which we observe in a relatively large num- 
ber of young people. To discuss the whole round of 
the ideals of youth would be impossible. Some young 
people have high ideals and others have low. Some 
young people live wholesome moral lives and others 
live upon a low plane of self-gratification. Some 
young people have keen minds and others are men- 
tally dull, and it is well for us to realize that the full 
significance of the highest idealism requires a devel- 
oped and well-balanced mind. In this chapter we 
shall let youth speak for itself. Perhaps in so doing 
we may learn something about youth and also develop 
some method of learning more. 

A questionnaire was recently sent out to several 
hundred young people of the age group which we 
have been studying. These young people, some of 
them college students and others workers in various 
fields of industry (chiefly clerical workers or sales- 
men), were asked a series of questions as to their 
problems, needs, and ideals. Their answers may in- 


35 


PSY CHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


dicate what some of our young people are thinking 
and doing. They, of course, do not constitute a de- 
pendable picture of later adolescence as a whole, but 
they are valuable as coming from young people them- 
selves. You will doubtless gain the greatest benefit 
from this chapter if you seek from young peopie in 
your own classes similar information about their ac- 
tivities and interests. 


Wuat Younc PEoPLE SAY 


I. QuEsTION: What sort of books do you like to 
read? 3 

Naturally there is a wide variety of answers to this 
question. A very large majority preferred fiction, 
but there are many who seem deeply interested in 
poetry, scientific books, and biography. Of course the 
reading of college students is largely affected by their 
subjects of study. One young salesman says he reads 
few books, as he “‘can get more stimulus from meet- 
ing with people of my own age in various types of 
activity.” 

2. QUESTION: What magazines do you read regu- 
larly? 

3. QUESTION: What magazines do you read oc- 
castonally ? 

An examination of the answers to these two ques- 
tions reveals a wide variety of reading interests. The 
magazines preferred by the industrial group are on 
the whole of a more serious type than those reported 
by college students. Perhaps it is natural that the 
students should turn from the solid reading of their 
study courses to magazines of lighter character. One 

36 


THE IDEALS: OF. YOUTH 


of the surprising discoveries is that the magazine 
which is regularly read by a very large proportion of 
the college students, standing at the head of all lists, 
is one which is chiefly given over to the glorification 
of personal and often material success. There are 
many who read the better type of magazines oc- 
casionally. The women’s magazines are fairly popular 
with college girls and a wide variety of special in- 
terests is indicated. A relatively small number report 
reading the sensational fiction magazines so con- 
spicuous on the news-stands. 

4. Question: What kind of music do you lke 
best? 

There are wide variations in the answers to this 
question, some preferring jazz and popular music and 
others preferring classical or artistic music. Many 
like a variety according to mood or occasion. In gen- 
eral, however, the musical preferences of those young 
people are quite decided. In the case of the college 
students the influence of strong music departments 
seems to me very evident in toning up the apprecia- 
tion of good music. 

5. Question: What are your favorite indoor 
amusements ? 

Here again is wide variation. In one Northern 
university the preferences of the boys are in the fol- 
lowing order: gymnastic games, reading, chess or 
similar games, cards, dancing, radio. The preferred 
amusements of the girls in the same institution are: 
reading, dancing, gymnastic games, music, cards. In a 
Southern college for women the order is: reading, 
cards, sewing or fancy work, dancing, music. In all 


37 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


my lists of papers from young women reading stands 
first, although most of the writers are engaged either 
in college study or in some form of clerical work. 

6. Question: What are your favorite outdoor 
amusements ? 

Here there are very wide variations. The following 
are the preferences of several groups in order of 
number of times chosen: Boys in Northern univer- 
sity—baseball, football, tennis, hiking, swimming, 
hunting, track athletics, skating, fishing. Girls in same 
Northern institution—hiking, swimming, tennis, horse- 
back riding, soccer football, motoring, skating, base- 
ball, golf, rowing. Girls in a Southern college for 
women: horseback riding, swimming, tennis, basket 
ball, walking. There are similar distributions in the 
industrial group, walking or hiking being a special 
favorite with the young women. Doubtless these pref- 
erences are largely dependent on local customs and 
opportunities for given activities. For example, the 
Southern girls might include skating after a winter or 
two in a Northern institution. It is clear from all the 
answers to this question that later adolescence is de- 
cidedly interested in active, out-of-door pleasures. 

7. QuESTION: Have you a hobby? What is it? 

Naturally, there are many hobbies. Those which 
are mentioned most frequently are given here. North- 
ern university boys—athletics, radio, reading, followed 
by a very wide variety of hobbies mentioned by only 
one or two students. It is noticeable, however, that 
the majority of these students either do not answer 
this question or deny that they have hobbies. Girls 
from the same university—reading, art, swimming, 

38 


tit 4 DEALS. OF YOUTH 


collecting for memory book, sewing. About half of 
this group either deny having hobbies or do not an- 
swer. Southern women’s college—dancing, reading, 
tennis, and a variety of hobbies mentioned by one each. 
The majority say they have no hobbies. The industrial 
groups show a very wide variety of hobbies. Some of 
those mentioned by young men are: Young people’s 
work, Boy Scout work, collecting furniture, collecting 
coins. One gives this more extensive list of hobbies: 
Ladies, dogs, autos, arguing. The young women men- 
tion, among other hobbies, looking after younger girls, 
“analyzing people about whom I know nothing,” 
cross-word puzzles, poetry, getting acquainted with 
queer people, opera, collecting postcard pictures of 
places visited. 

8. Question: What kind of religious meetings do 
you most enjoy? 

Northern college men seem to prefer the young 
people’s meeting to any other type of religious service, 
the Sunday school standing second and the preaching 
service third. A few mention a revival service as 
their preference. Many indicate the type of service 
they like as “semi-formal,” “not too emotional,” 
“quiet, spiritual meetings,” “those that the young peo- 
ple take part in.” Only one young man confesses that 
he does not enjoy any of them. Northern college 
women give their preferences as follows: Regular 
church service, young people’s society, Sunday school, 
Y. W. C. A., with several choices of single students. 
The Southern girl students show a different order of 
preference, with the Y. W. C. A. as the chief prefer- 
ence, the Sunday school and the young people’s society 


39 


PSYCHOLOGY |} OF LATER! ADOLESCENCE 


tied for second place and the regular church service 
and the revival meeting tied for the next place. Of 
the industrial group the young men seem generally to 
prefer some sort of informal service in which they 
may take part while the young women seem to prefer 
the regular church services. 

g. Question: What do you enjoy in them? 

10. QuesTIOoN: What good do you get out of them? 

To these two questions there are many individual 
answers. Many answer very vaguely or omit to an- 
swer altogether. The element whose enjoyment is 
oftenest mentioned is music, discussions coming sec- 
ond and sermons third. There are many who wish “a 
balanced program,” “association with others of the 
same age,” “straightforward speaking,” “a feeling of 
worship,” “‘a quiet service,’ and in various ways indi- 
cate an appreciation of well-planned and purposeful 
services. 

The profit received from religious meetings is most 
frequently described in terms of inspiration to better 
living or broader conceptions and ideals. In various 
ways these young people indicate a real interest in 
those services which aid in their own character-build- 
ing. Religious services make them “feel like accom- 
plishing something,” lead to “a better understanding 
of God,” “give a sense of worship and of a good deed 
well done,” “‘stimulate to a better life,” make one ‘‘feel 
the beauty of God,” put one “on the right basis for the 
work of life.” One young man says he gets “enjoy- 
ment or inspiration out of the good ones; nothing out 
of the dry ones.” A carelessly planned service does 
not make a very deep appeal. 


40 


PED BATS: OR VY OWT H 


It. Question: If you attend religious meetings 
often or regularly, what is the real reason? 

Most of the answers to this question appear to be 
given in all frankness, although some may have given 
conventional and perfunctory answers without giving 
much thought to the question. Three groups of an- 
swers which seem to be about equally frequent are 
similar to these: “I go because I like to;” “I go be- 
cause I think I ought;” “I go because of the benefit I 
may receive.” Next to these three reasons the largest 
number of answers give habit and parental training 
as the reason for churchgoing. There are a few scat- 
tering answers that indicate higher ideals than these, 
such as “to be able to serve better,” or “for the help I 
can give others and the help that I get.” A consider- 
able number of young people say they go if they like 
the preacher’s sermons or if there is to be good music. 
From all the answers I gain the general impression 
that these young people feel that the church is not in- 
terested in active service for the world deeply enough 
to greatly stir their enthusiasm for churchgoing. 

12. QuesTION: What sort of religious teaching do 
you feel the need of now? 

A large proportion of the papers indicate a conscious 
need for teaching that practically applies the principles 
of Christianity to the needs of the world. Another 
large group are anxious for help to understand the 
Bible. Many feel the need for the sort of teaching 
that will harmonize religious concepts with those in 
other fields of thought. Such answers as these are 
common: “I feel the need of teaching that will put 
religion on a sound intellectual as well as spiritual 


4I 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


basis.” “TI need teaching that will clear up doubts re- 
sulting from little knowledge.” One young man asks 
for ‘more teaching and less preaching.” 

13. Question: Do you think Christianity can be 
applied to business? | 

Nearly all the young people agree that it can and 
should be so applied. Many cite individual compa- 
nies of whose profit-sharing or other practices in the 
interest of their employees they have heard. Still 
others mention business men of high personal morality 
whom they have known. But most of these young 
people seem to have high ideals with regard to this 
matter. One young salesman suggests as a way to 
apply Christianity, “issuing of stock to any or all 
members of a firm, including those who do the real 
work in the shop; promotion from the inside rather 
than from the outside; treating a customer humanly— 
selling him what he needs rather than what he wants.” 
A shop worker writes: “Yes, it is applicable, but let’s 
see the one who does it. I have never seen it applied 
very largely.” A young woman, a clerical worker in a 
large tailoring factory, says: “When any one big con- 
cern comes to do this, really and truly, I think the com- 
ing of His kingdom will be very near at hand.” Nat- 
urally, there are very different viewpoints, one young 
man, a student, holding that the prevailing code of 
business ethics is founded on Christianity, while oth- 
ers say “The one who first applies Christianity in the 
business world will be out of luck,” or “certain scru- 
ples and ideals must be forgotten in the business world 
if one wishes to succeed to any great degree.” <A very 
general conclusion is that Christianity could be ap- 


42 


THE IDEALS OF YOUTH 


plied and should be applied in business, “but on the 
whole is not.” 

14. QUESTION: Can Christianity be applied to 
politics? 

As in the case of Question 13, there was a very 
general agreement that Christianity should be applied 
to politics, but generally is not so applied. Various 
local instances of applied Christianity are cited, but 
these young people are very conscious of the discrep- 
ancies between general political practice and applied 
Christianity. The following are fairly typical replies: 
“Christianity is the only force that will purge politics 
of its present corruptness.” “Greed, lust for power, 
and ambition along material lines have more power 
over mankind than Christianity.” “The man who 
applies it makes a poor politician.” “If Christian prin- 
ciples were applied to politics, there would be an un- 
believable change.” 

15. QuEsTION: Explain your conception of the 
Christian attitude toward war. 

As those who have attended the recent student con- 
ferences might expect, there are wide differences of 
opinion regarding the length to which Christians 
should go in opposition to war. There is, however, a 
general unity of judgment that war is an unchristian 
method of settling disputes between nations. Many 
believe that no war except it be of a defensive nature 
is ever justified. If wars are fought, they should be 
“for the betterment of the kingdom of God,” “not for 
conquest but for principle.” But many feel that “if 
a nation were Christian, it would not indulge in war.” 
These are typical quotations: “The modern attitude 


43 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


seems to be if you wish to have war, war is right. If 
you do not wish war then war is wrong.” “War is 
unchristian, but all we can do is to continually strive 
to do away with it.” “The Christian’s attitude must 
be Christ’s attitude—I cannot think of my Master as 
one who would enter a war.” “Wrongs should be 
punished by force if necessary. This would not be 
war, though, if there were in existence some inter- 
national organization.” “No wars are holy or ever 
can be.” “The Christian idea is that war is wrong; 
but if there is a war, the instinct is to fight.” 

16. QUESTION: Are you interested in the same 
things as when you were seventeen? What changes do 
you notice? | 

Among a wide variety of interests mentioned a 
greater now than at seventeen are these: problems of 
the future, the spiritual life, personal responsibility, 
the “‘bigger things of life,” admiration for beauty, pol- 
itics, work, scientific investigation, deeper and less 
selfish interests, higher ideals, serious views of life, 
the character of people, what is to be made of life, 
children, classical music, pictures, Sunday school, 
vocations, parents, education, broader social concepts, 
world affairs, sermons. ‘These interests involve more 
definite planning rather than air castles and an increas- 
ing control by principle rather than by emotion. 

17. QuESTION: What do you consider the most im- 
portant problems faced by young people? 

Where do you and your acquaintances expect to get 
help in each of these? 

The problems most frequently mentioned are: vo- 
cation, temptation and self-control, sex relationships, 


44 


THE IDEALS OF YOUTH 


amusements, companions. Other scattered problems 
are these: “The expression of youth in a cramped 
and traditionally minded age,” “being a Christian and 
living up to my ideals,” “friendliness to other young 
people who are not real friends,” “making older peo- 
ple understand,” “how to aid humanity.” The an- 
swers to the second part of the question are equally 
varied. These young people expect help from their 
friends, from religion and the church, from their 
parents and other experienced older people. Some feel 
that such problems as that of sex relationship “are 
not to be solved by older heads but by the young people 
working together to spread the better attitude them- 
selves,’ while one young man says: “We, in spite of 
their reluctance, expect to get our help from our par- 
ents in a frank, honest way.” 

18. Question: What do you think the church 
should do for young people beyond what it is now 
doing? 

The greatest group of answers to this question have 
to do with the need for a program of recreation, al- 
though the need for more provision for activity and 
service through the church is quite generally felt. 
There seems to be a general feeling that the church in 
its relation to young people has many important prob- 
lems. The following are some of the many sugges- 
tions: Educate ministers better; direct the social side 
of life; give more doctrinal freedom; reach personal 
lives more; make the ministry more attractive; be as 
particular about membership as the lodges are; show 
the value of Christianity by example; make going to 
church more pleasant than going elsewhere; entice 


45 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


young people to come instead of forcing them away; 
teach tthe practical side of religion; teach self-sacrifice ; 
give young people trust and confidence rather than 
paternalism; make closer contact with young people; 
preach a better social life; preach shorter and more in- 
teresting sermons; be young in spirit. 

19. QuEsTION: How can divorce be avoided? 

A considerable number of young people insist that 
this is a problem of being sure of true love, but the 
largest group lay the emphasis upon the need of “fore- 
sight,” “knowing one’s mind,” “more serious thought 
beforehand,” “studying each other before marriage.” 
To be sure, the judgment of these young people may 
change as they themselves come a little closer to mar- 
riage, but there is some significance in the number 
who feel that marriage should be carefully considered 
beforehand. Some would have stricter divorce laws, 
and one young man says: “Don’t let ’em get married 
so easily.” Most of the papers place the responsibility 
upon the young people themselves rather than upon 
the failure of law or of society in general. 


THE SPIRIT OF YOUTH 


The foregoing answers to questions seem at first 
to indicate wide differences between young people. 
It is true there are wide individual differences, but 
there are also certain generally characteristic attitudes 
to be observed throughout these listed expressions. 
Here we have several hundred young people from 
North and South, from large universities and small 
colleges, from shops and offices, from colleges for 
women and from coeducational colleges, and they indi- 

46 


Ae uN En) Bese Oy EE 


cate general attitudes toward life that differ decidedly 
from those of adults. Here we find an optimism, a 
moral sensitiveness, a readiness to respond to noble 
ideals, an enthusiasm for what they believe highest and 
most worthy, which are characteristic of youth. Until 
we as a people feel this vital, throbbing and powerful 
heart of youth we can never understand its mind or 
utilize its will to the ends of Christian civilization. 


PROBLEMS 


I. Secure from your class or from some group of 
young people written answers to the questions given 
in this chapter. 

2. Use these questions as a basis for a series of dis- 
cussions, keeping careful records of the points made 
by the speakers. 

3. Add to these questions those which seem to you 
likely to further bring out the ideals and interests of 
the group. 

4. Determine to what extent the ideals expressed 
by your group are affected by their daily work and 
environment. 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING 


The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter XII. 

Handbook for Workers With Young People, Thomp- 
son, Chapters I, II, III. 

The Pupil, Barclay, Chapter XI. 

The Pupil and the Teacher, Weigle, Chapter VII. 

The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, Addams. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapter XIX. 


47 


CHAPTER IV 
FEELING AND EMOTION 


THE development of feeling and emotion is one of 
the most interesting problems of childhood and ado- 
lescence. The emotions of childhood are vigorous 
but usually of short duration. 


“The tear down childhood’s cheek that flows 
Is like the dewdrop on the rose; 
When next the summer breeze comes by 
And waves the bush, the flower is dry.” 


Adolescence gradually restricts and controls the out- 
ward expressions of feeling, but through early and 
middle youth the feeling activities are growing deeper 
and stronger, moods and sentiments are being devel- 
oped, and in later adolescence the life of feeling is at 
its flood. 


FEELING STATES 


The life of feeling has been described as the “‘lean- 
ing” aspect of mental life. We are pleased or dis- 
pleased in various degrees by our experiences. Some- 
times our leaning is a very slight attraction or repul- 
sion, a mere liking or disliking. Most of us do not 
respond very violently to the question of which gown 
or which cravat we shall wear to-day. Perhaps we 
mildly prefer blue to lavender, but under some cir- 
cumstances we might feel a more vigorous preference. 

48 


FEELING AND EMOTION 


Children are often stirred to positive emotion by just 
such matters of preference. The most elementary 
form of this leaning phase of mind is usually called 
“affection.” 

“When the affective process becomes an object of 
consciousness, as when we say ‘I like this’ or ‘I dislike 
this, it is usually called a feeling; when it is very 
strong so that it breaks out into marked forms of ex- 
pression, it is usually spoken of as an emotion; when 
it is of a contemplative nature we call it sentiment; 
when it becomes habitual we call it a mood, and when 
it is uncontrollable we call it a passion.”! 

The Physiology of Feeling.—The life of feeling is 
conditioned by a vast complex of physiological factors. 
The nervous system, for example, has millions of 
nerve endings which respond to a great variety of 
stimuli. Physical conditions outside the body, chem- 
ical conditions within the body, the activity of all the 
glands and vital organs and blood vessels and muscles 
—all these affect the nervous system and modify our 
total feeling tone. Our mental experiences, sorrows 
and joys, dangers and delights, even the weather and 
the subtle attitudes of our friends, affect our feeling 
states. In fact, it is through the mingled mass of af- 
fective impulses that our sensations have any meaning 
for us at all. 

Feeling and Religion.—The significance of the life 
of feeling for the readers of this book is clear when 
it is seen that all our vital experiences, even those in- 
volved in religion, depend for their significance upon 


1Seashore, Introduction io Psychology, copyright, The Mac- 
millan Company, 1923, p. 303. 


49 


PSYCHOLOGY?) OF LATER*ADOLESCENCE 


the life of feeling. Religion has too often been con- 
sidered an intellectual matter. But intellectual assent 
is not its greatest value. “The demons also believe,” 
says Saint James. More vital are the feelings and 
emotions that have their outcome in attitudes of love 
and worship and service.2 The training of these atti- 
tudes and the development of habituated feelings of 
reverence, fellowship with God and a wholesome sym- 
pathy with one’s fellow men is one of the chief tasks 
of religious education.® 

How the Feelings Develop—tThe feelings and 
emotions of early adolescence are naturally subject to 
rapid changes and often puzzling complexities. At 
that time the body, including the nervous system, the 
endocrene glands, and all the organs that affect the 
life of feeling, is rapidly growing. The essential 
processes of adjustment continue at a decreasing rate 
through middle adolescence. Later adolescence is 
usually the closing period of the process of harmoniz- 
ing the reactions of body and mind. Sometimes there 
is a retarded development, the young man or woman 
retaining unduly the traits of earlier periods. It is 
normal for the adolescent development to be relatively 
regular and continuous, although later adolescence 
differs emotionally from any other period of life. 

Adolescent energy.—The whole physical organism 
is normally in full vigor in later adolescence. The de- 
veloped muscles are hungry for exercise and vigorous 
athletic sports have a deep attraction. The finer mus- 
cles are also developed and skills that were impossible 


2 The God Experience, Mudge, Chapter XI. 
3 See The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, Chapter IV. 


50 


FEELING AND EMOTION 


in childhood are attainable. The whole organism is 
a-tingle. The instincts that make the creative arts in- 
teresting are stimulated by the joy of activity in the 
use of every sense and every muscle. The activity of 
this period is very different from that of childhood. 
It is more organized, more controlled by the will, and 
less impulsive. Later adolescence delights in sports 
and competitions and may be enthusiastically applied 
either to work or to play. Upon education, that of 
the earlier periods as well as that of later youth itself, 
depends the use which is made of this vigorous energy. 
It may be dissipated in thoughtless excitement or it 
may be directed into channels of practical service to 
others. 


Tue More Vicorous EMOTIONS 


An emotion is defined by one psychologist as “any 
complex fact of consciousness, of which either pleas- 
antness or unpleasantness is the significant feature.’’* 
Another says: “Emotion is a stirred-up state of the 
individual.”> It is a conscious state of high feeling, 
marked by such bodily changes as warmth or chill, 
quickened or retarded pulse, altered breathing, mus- 
cular contraction and many other observable changes, 
together with complex activities of the nerves, the 
blood vessels, the glands, and the various vital organs. 
The excitement involved in emotion when -whole- 
somely controlled is of high value to our individual 
and social life. It is natural for young people to 

4An Introduction to Psychology, Calkins, copyright, The Mac- 


millan Company, I9OI, p. 263. 
5 Psychology: A Study of Mental Life, Woodworth, p. 118. 


SI 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


crave some sort of emotional stimulation. The legiti- 
mate satisfaction of the craving involves some of the 
most significant problems of religious education. The 
needs of young life are by no means supplied by an © 
attitude of disapproval of the unwholesome stimula- 
tions. We must support and encourage positive pro- 
grams of wholesome activity, both in the field of play 
and in the field of active service. | 

The Function of Emotion.—The very word “emo- 
tion” indicates the place of feeling in volition and 
activity. An emotion tends to stimulate and energize 
our physical movements and our mental processes. 
An angry man can strike a harder blow than would 
be possible when he is not emotionally excited. A man 
whose house is on fire may be able to carry from 
the building a chest that he could not lift save under 
the stress of emotional excitement. The mechanism 
of emotion has already been described in part in 
Chapter II. The human organism has two relatively 
independent nervous systems. The central nervous 
system, with its network of nerves leading to the 
brain, is active in all our conscious states and in many 
bodily processes of which we are unconscious. The 
sympathetic or autonomic nervous system consists of 
nerves and nerve centers which are stimulated by all 
sorts of emotional situations and which control invol- 
untary muscles and glands. In fact, this nervous sys- 
tem is coordinated with the endocrene system with its 
various secretions that are thrown into the blood on 
every occasion of vigorous emotion. As an example, 
when occasion arises for terror or anger, the sym- 
pathetic nervous system becomes active and stimulates 

§2 


~ 


FEELING AND EMOTION 


the adrenal glands, which, in turn, pour into the blood 
their characteristic secretion, adrenin. This causes. 
the stimulation of the nerves controlling the muscles, 
including the muscles of the heart. The heart responds. 
by beating more rapidly and powerfully. At the same 
time the adrenin acts upon the digestive tract as a de- 
pressant and causes the processes of stomach and in- 
testines temporarily to cease their activity. Thus the 
whole energy of the organism is mobilized for the ac- 
tivities involved in meeting the situation that caused 
the emotion. 

The Control of Emotion.—In later adolescence 
emotion is normally more vigorous than ever before, 
but it is being brought under the control of the will. 
Even feeling can be educated. Vigorous passions may 
be inhibited and lethargic feelings may be stimulated to 
efficient activity. Vigorous participation in the world’s. 
life demands of our young people vigorous emotional 
reactions, but these should be under the control of a 
trained judgment. Some have expressed the fear that 
the wholesome development of emotion may be checked 
by the repression of feeling. ‘‘Passions are bred out 
nowadays,” says a character in a novel. “I don’t be- 
lieve the next generation will be shook to the heart 
with the same gusts and storms as the last. We think 
smaller thoughts and feel smaller sentiments; we're 
too careful of our skins to trust the giant passions ; 
our hearts don’t pump the same great flood of hot 
blood.” In this vein some deplore the turning of 
_ youth from the vigorous passions of war and adven- 
ture. The control of emotion, however, is not its 
abolition, and the fundamental energy of emotional 


53 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


reaction is not reduced by being set to more useful 
tasks than war and piracy. Young people may be 
stimulated by the challenge of service to battle as vig- 
orously against selfishness and social injustice as ever 
men did against their foes on the field of blood. There 
are battlefields of politics and social justice to supply 
the full “moral equivalent of war” and the real solution 
of the perplexing problems of the world must be met 
by the vigorous, enthusiastic passion for righteousness 
of our young men and women. 

An Educational Problem.—By producing the situ- 
ation to which emotion normally responds we can in- 
duce an emotion in our students. If we raise an 
alarm of fire or if we picture very vividly the penalties 
of sin, we may stimulate a fear emotion. By our words 
and actions, by reading thrilling stories aloud, by ex- 
hibiting motion pictures or stage drama we may stimu- 
late actual emotion. This stimulation may or may not 
be profitable. There is a wide difference between the 
story or play that leads one to respond with a generous 
and worthy act or a positive attitude that leads to such 
an action, and the story or play that simply stirs the 
emotions and fails to utilize them in wholesome be- 
havior. Professor Kilpatrick has said: 

“The idea of getting people stirred up and then 
nothing happening, is the worst kind of education. If 
we get stirred up and do nothing about it, we next time 
have to increase the dose of being stirred up.” Pro- 
fessor Thorndike somewhere speaks of a man who 
boils with rage at idleness but is content to boil idly. 


_ *§ William H. Kilpatrick, in an address before the Council of 
Religious Education, 1919. 


54 


FEELING AND EMOTION 


Such emotion is of doubtful value. It may even be 
harmful in its repeatedly ineffective reaction. On the 
other hand, an emotion that actively stirs one to right 
a wrong or perform a service is of the highest social 
significanec. 

Many of our novels and plays have the effect of 
stimulating emotions without releasing their energy in 
useful activity. There are many people who find a 
strange satisfaction in ‘‘sob stories” ending in nothing 
more than sentimental tears. This represents an actual 
waste of emotion. It should be the aim of education 
to safeguard the emotional as well as the intellectual 
life so that emotion shall be, in as great a degree as 
possible, wholesomely productive. Even the church 
often fails to utilize the emotional reactions which it 
stimulates, and young people are stirred and stimulated 
without being given adequate tasks. There is need for 
emotion in religion—without it the church would be 
a barren desert of fruitless ideas—but the emotional 
life of our enthusiastic young people must be har- 
nessed to the religious problems and moral tasks of 
the world. 

Emotional variations—We need not expect the 
high tide of youthful enthusiasm always to flow in a 
steady stream. ‘There are various forces contending in 
young life. Says J. J. Bell, in “Courtin’ Christina”: 
“Moral earthquakes are not infrequent during our 
teens and twenties; by their own convulsions they pro- 
vide constructive material for character; but the ma- 
terial is mixed, and we are left to choose whether we 
shall erect sturdy towers or jerry buildings.” 

Later adolescence has many inner conflicts, some- 


55 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


times resulting in a high degree of stress and strain. 
Many young people seem to wish to do everything and 
to do it at once. There are paradoxical impulses that 
seem to pull them in opposite directions.7’ They are 
sad and glad by turns, and their shifting moods are 
often perplexing to their friends. In some abnormal! 
cases there are widely divergent moods that approach 
the disassociation of personality illustrated by Dr. 
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and in normal young people there 
are greater or lesser shifts of interests and impulses. 
But normally in later adolescence one is less erratic, 
less ready to respond to emotion, more thoroughly self- 
controlled than in any earlier period. The highest 
type of young people have vigorous impulses that 
hold them in harmonious balance. . 
Adolescent genius.—In the life of Marie Bash- 
kirtseff there is a typical picture of genius in adoles- 
cence. In the journal of this remarkable young 
woman we have a series of life confessions of a girl 
endowed with unusual intellectual power, force of will, 
and potency of feeling, but showing very clearly the 
characteristic spirit of youth. She did not live to 
attain adult life, but the development of this young 
artist illustrates vividly many of the characteristics 
which are less exaggerated in the average young girl. 
Some have considered Marie Bashkirtseff’s journal 
the record of an abnormal mind. It was certainly an 
unusual mind, the mind of a highly temperamental 


7 These ‘‘contradictory characters’”’ are more fully discussed in 
The Psychology of Early Adolescence, Mudge, Chapter VI. 
_ &The author’s article, “An Adolescent Genius,’’ was published 
in The Pedagogical Seminary, March, 1921. 


56 


FEELING AND EMOTION 


young woman, but its abnormality largely consists in 
its being so clearly reflected to the world. Other girls 
have similar emotions, ambitions and ideals, but they 
have repressed them conventionally and have devel- 
oped into the adult life which was denied this young 
woman. ; 

Like most young people, Marie Bashkirtseff was dis- 
tinctly and often painfully self-conscious. She seems 
to have been constantly thinking of herself, her abil- 
ities, her personal appearance, and her feelings. She 
was childishly pleased, even within the last fortnight 
of her life, with her clothes and her face. She was 
ambitious. She longed devoutly to do the things for 
which she felt ability. She was determined to be fa- 
mous, and in this even in her short life she measurably 
succeeded. She showed the characteristic adolescent 
tendency to sadness and melancholy and still she had 
the ability to examine her own states rather objec- 
tively and watch herself as one might watch an actor 
on the stage. She says: “However much I may cry 
and fall into a rage, I am always conscious of what I 
do.” Her first love affairs are typical of the early 
development of the tender passion in adolescence. 
She falls in love with an English duke whom she has 
never met, and believes herself heartbroken when she 
reads of his marriage. Later she fascinates an Ital- 
ian youth and so far yields to his love-making as to 
give him a single kiss, for which she long continues 
to reproach herself. It is only late in adolescence that 
a normal love experience begins to emerge, and even 
then she does not seem to recognize it for what it is. 

Many typical adolescent traits were magnified in 


57 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


this remarkable girl. She was ambitious, self-asser- 
tive, high-spirited, finicky in tastes, often restless and 
irritable, intellectually critical and at the same time 
highly suggestible. She justly felt, as most young 
people do, that her friends did not understand her. 
Indeed, she did not understand herself. 

In many respects Marie Bashkirtseff was a paradox 
of impulses; as, indeed, all vigorous personalities are, 
especially perhaps in adolescence. She is deeply re- 
ligious, she is highly superstitious, and still she is 
cynical, skeptical and intellectualistic. Early in her 
fourteenth year she already considered herself quite 
blasé and was developing an attitude of introspection. 
She said, “I compare myself to a piece of water that 
is frozen in its depths, and has motion only on its 
surface, for nothing amuses or interests me in my 
depths.” But within a few days she is in raptures over 
her voice, which is at this time her artistic hope. “I 
receive it with tears in my eyes and thank God for it 
on my knees. I said nothing, but I was cruelly 
grieved. I did not dare to speak of it. I prayed to 
God and he has heard me.” 

Moods of gayety and hopefulness are closely fol- 
lowed by periods of melancholy and despair. The 
progress of disease may account for some degree of 
this in her later years, but she has the true adolescent 
shifting of moods. One day she is depressed, sorrow- 
ful, miserable, and another day she expresses the 
highest joy. 

In all these things Marie Bashkirtseff is representa- 
tive of the active enthusiasm, the high and often er- 
ratic energies of adolescence, but there is developing 

58 


FEELING AND EMOTION 


in the midst of all this a certain idealism which un- 
doubtedly would have made of Marie Bashkirtseff, 
had she lived longer, one of the notable artists of her 
day. It is the experience of many educators that 
young people with a similar high emotional energy 
may be directed to utilize this energy in important 
service. In a later chapter we shall show how the 
impulses of adolescence, rightly directed, flow out into 
activities of important social value. 


PROBLEMS 


1. What are the results of the highly emotional type 
of motion pictures? 

2. How many of the hymns used in your school 
seem to you emotionally and practically wholesome? 

3. How can the emotional values in your worship 
service be utilized in the interest of the application of 
Christian principles? 

4. Write a description of the emotional behavior of 
some highly sensitive person of your acquaintance. 


Books FOR FuRTHER READING 


Talks to Teachers, James, page 190ff. 

The Psychology of Early Adolescence, Mudge, Chap- 
ters VI and VII. 

The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, 
Chapter [V. 

Introduction to Psychology, Seashore, Chapter XXI. 

Introduction to Psychology, Calkins, Chapter XX. 

Psychology: Briefer Course, James, Chapter XXIV. 

Psychology: A Study of Mental Life, Woodworth, 
Chapter IX. 

The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter VI. 

Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear, and Rage, 
Cannon. 


59 


CHARTER Y, 
THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 


Later adolescence is pre-eminently the romantic 
period. In this period the mating instinct normally 
approaches its highest activity. Early adolescence 
saw a decided development of the instincts and im- 
pulses relating to sex. The interest of boys and girls 
in the opposite sex appeared quite commonly in the 
form of an apparent sex-repulsion, but in both sexes 
this interest was growing in some individuals more 
than others. Middle adolescence saw a further de- 
velopment through the tentative approaches, the grow- 
ing sex consciousness and the early courtships, often 
brief, but many times intense, which marked the high- 
school period. The real period of courtship and the 
selection of mates normally comes in later adolescence. 
In a sense, love between the sexes may be termed a 
phenomenon of this period, for normally it now makes 
its decided appearance in its more permanent form. 
The significance of this fact may be illustrated by the 
extent of the love motive in human thought and in- 
terest. “All the world loves a lover.” Take this 
motive from the literature of the world and a great 
bulk of it would be done away. The popular hero 
or heroine of a novel or a play is nearly always a 
young man or woman of this age period. 

60 


THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 


THE PROFOUND INFLUENCE OF SEX 


This universal interest in love between the sexes 
indicates the profound influence of sex upon our en- 
tire social and individual psychology. There is suf- 
ficient reason for this. The impulses of sex in human 
lives are not merely a mechanism for the perpetuation 
of the species. They are interwoven with all the 
nobler values and ideals of life. The finest sentiments, 
the noblest ideals, are in great degree a sublimation 
of this universal impulse. Springing from the physical 
and mental elements in sex have come great spiritual 
forces, idealism, sacrificing service, and the tenderness, 
sympathy, and appreciation of our social, zxsthetic, 
moral, and religious characters. “As exemplifying the 
transformation of which an instinct is capable, the 
sexual emotion associates with itself a very wide range 
of emotional experience, manifesting an almost ‘un- 
limited plasticity.’ Jt fuses mto ‘one immense aggre- 
gate, as Spencer says, most of the elementary exctta- 
tions of which we are capable—pride, the pleasure of 
possession, love of freedom, love of sympathy, and, 
as directed toward the object of its choice, admiration, 
affection, reverence. There could be no better exam- 
ple of the way in which an instinct may practically 
change the character of its manifestation though re- 
taining much of its congenital direction and energy.” 

In this great universal impulse of love between the 
sexes God has placed high potencies for the develop- 
ment of mankind. Here is a great spiritual energy 
which may be so perverted as to lead to all that is 


17 he Unfolding of Personality, Mark, p. 90. 
61 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


gross or debasing or which may be so guided and ele- 
vated as to contribute to all that is noble and sacred. 
Beginning in attraction between two, it relates to 
itself all the impulses and distinctive tendencies which 
culminate normally in the wholesome life of the fam- 
ily. It is during later adolescence that these impulses 
come to their highest energy. The young man is 
spurred to high activity in all his life relations for 
love’s sake, and women under the same inspiration ac- 
complish things hitherto impossible. It is not an acci- 
dent that in both men and women idealistic impulses 
toward nature, toward God, toward human society, 
toward vocations, toward all things good and true 
and beautiful, reach a high development in later ado- 
lescence. Out of the devotions of a normal sex life 
come impulses that awaken the spiritual capacities 
of young people. The relationship between this nor- 
mal sex life and the religious life should be recognized. 
The failures of many marriages are due to the lack of 
emphasis upon the spiritual phases of life. We say 
that marriage is a sacred covenant, but this is true 
because normal sex love is a sacred relationship and 
one which should bring young people into harmony 
with all things high and worthy and with the abiding 
spirit of love. 

Abnormalities.—Our chief desire for our boys and 
girls should be their normal development, and one of 
our greatest needs is a thorough understanding of what 
is normal in their training and experience in relation to 
sex problems. Much depends upon the earlier periods. 
Without proper guidance, early adolescence is a danger 
period, and middle adolescence may lead to a variety of 

62 


THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 


unwholesome adjustments. There are some young peo- 
ple who do not pass normally out of one period into 
the next, but their development remains partially ar- 
rested and hangs in unstable equilibrium. The abnor- 
malities of the sex life of later adolescence are very 
largely due to the persistence of methods of adjust- 
ments which are normal characteristics of earlier 
periods. Thus, for example: the impulsive love af- 
fairs of middle adolescence may be perpetuated in the 
impulses of later adolescence and a full development 
of the vital sex passions be arrested so that the young 
woman whose affections should normally tend to be- 
come centered upon one object becomes a flirt, a 
coquette, yielding to the capricious impulses charac- 
teristic of earlier periods. The young man may cor- 
respondingly fail to develop the wholesomely nor- 
mal and powerful impulses to a permanent love ex- 
perience. The normal young person in late ado- 
lescence is positively attracted by young peopie of the 
opposite sex and for the first time is generally free 
from the restraints of his home and the determination 
of his elders. The conjunction of the complete de- 
velopment of the sex impulses and this greater freedom 
is at once the glory, the high challenge, and the danger 
of this period. 

To understand many of the wholesome as well as 
the unwholesome developments of later adolescence 
we must know the tremendous influence of the love 
motive. 

“Many waters cannot quench love, 
Neither can floods drown it.” 
63 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


It persists in the face of poverty, pain, and death. 
It survives even hatred and is found holding with re- 
markable tenacity the forsaken wife to the bitter mem- 
ory of a husband. Jane Addams has reported case 
after case in which a young wife has stood by her 
husband, a cruel and profligate criminal, enduring the 
sufferings of a long martyrdom for his sake. Prob- 
ably fewer men than women have been thus faithful 
in the face of difficulty, but in both sexes there are 
examples all about us of faithful devotion without 
stint to the husband or wife of one’s youthful choice. 

Emerson on love.—The influence of the tender 
passion upon the lives of the young men and women 
has never been more beautifully described than in 
the following paragraphs by Emerson: 


I have been told that my philosophy is unsocial, 
and, that, in public discourses, my reverence for the 
intellect makes me unjustly cold to the personal rela- 
tions. But now I almost shrink at the remembrance of 
such disparaging words. For persons are love’s world, 
and the coldest philosopher cannot recount the debt 
of the young soul wandering here in nature to the 
power of love, without being tempted to unsay as treas- 
onable to nature, aught derogatory to the social in- 
stincts. For, though the celestial rapture falling out of 
heaven seizes only upon those of tender age, and 
although a beauty overpowering all analysis and com- 
parison, and putting us quite beside ourselves, we can 
seldom see after thirty years, yet the remembrance of 
these visions outlasts all other remembrances, and is a 
wreath of flowers on the oldest brows. But here is a 
strange fact. It may seem to many men in revising 
their experience that they have no fairer pages in 
their life’s book than the delicious memory of some 


64 


THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 


passages wherein affection contrived to give a witch- 
craft surpassing the deep attraction of its own truth 
to a parcel of accidental and trivial circumstances. In 
looking backward they may find that several things 
which were not the charm, have more reality to this 
groping memory than the charm itself which embalmed 
them. 

But be our experience in particulars what it may, 
no man ever forgot the visitations of that power to his 
heart and brain, which created all things new; which 
was the dawn in him of music, poetry and art; which 
made the face of nature radiant with purple light; the 
morning and the night varied enchantments; when a 
single tone of one voice could make the heart beat, 
and the most trivial circumstance associated with one 
form is put in the amber of memory; when we became 
all eye when one was present, and all memory when 
one was gone; when a youth becomes a watcher of 
windows, and studious of a glove, a ribbon, or the 
wheels of a carriage; when no place is too solitary, and 
none too silent for him who has richer company and 
sweeter conversation in his new thoughts, than any 
old friends, though best and purest, can give him; for 
the figures, the motions, the words of the beloved ob- 
ject are not like other images written in water, but, as 
Plutarch said, enameled in fire. 


The love letters of late adolescence are not all works 
of literary art. In our later years we should doubtless 
be ashamed of the soft sentimentality of these early 
epistles, but they represent a vital, wholesome impulse, 
a powerful, worthy devotion which is rich in its pos- 
sibilities for all later social relationships. For it is 
out of the normal instinctive impulses of sex attrac- 
tion and parental love that altruism comes, and un- 
selfishness and tenderness and sympathy. 

65 


PSYCHOLOGY: OF LATER ADODESCENGE 


Need for guidance.—lIf there is any impulse which 
needs guidance throughout childhood and adolescence, 
it is this most powerful one. Sex education should 
begin with the earliest years of a child’s life, for it 
very largely consists in the attitude of parents to one 
another, in the personal habits which need to be en- 
couraged very early in life, in the social relationships 
which are shared even by very small children. A 
little later more direct methods of sex instruction are 
needed and in early and middle adolescence it is very 
important that proper sympathetic guidance should be 
given. It will be readily seen that many of the prob- 
lems of sex education are problems of earlier periods 
than the one now under discussion, but there is great 
need for wise guidance and counsel during the later 
adolescent period. Many young people have received 
no adequate instruction concerning matters of sex, and, 
sad to say, many young people marry without adequate 
knowledge of the significance of the married state and 
the problems which it entails. We need men and 
women who can sympathetically and tactfully render 
assistance to the young people to whom the sex rela- 
tions have constituted an often perplexing problem. 
Something more is required than to discuss sex prob- 
lems with young people on a scientific basis, though, 
to be sure, it is very important that sex education 
should be scientific, and we should be extremely ac- 
curate in our statements concerning matters of sex 
hygiene. There is great need for an interpretation of 
sex in terms of life and character. The whole subject 
should be treated with a wholesome emphasis upon 
the spiritual values to be found in the right sort of 

66 


TAR ROMAN TIO PERIOD 


sex attitudes. We should seek to stimulate an ap- 
preciation of all the fine, uplifting elements, the altru- 
ism, the mutual helpfulness and appreciation which 
love at its best and highest means.? 

Social agencies.—It is important that we provide, 
as far as possible, for the wholesome and normal 
expression of the sex impulses by promoting social 
relationships. It is a serious matter, in relation to the 
ethical, social, and religious problems of our day, 
that so many young people have no opportunity for 
the normal development of social relationships be- 
tween the sexes. Our social agencies should provide 
places where young men and young women may meet 
in wholesome environments. Proprietors of apartment 
houses and tenements should provide for the social 
meeting of the young people. The only opportunity 
of many young men and women in our cities for meet- 
ing congenial friends of the opposite sex is in the often 
unwholesome surroundings of public parks or private 
amusement places. There is nothing which the insti- 
tutional churches in our great cities can more prof- 
itably do than to provide places of recreation for our 
young people, and places where young men and young 
women may properly meet and develop wholesome 
acquaintances. 

Sex and education.—Religious education has an 
important part in the proper development of sex life. 
Adolescence is not only the period when the sex im- 
pulses are approaching their high tide, but it is also 


2 There is an excellent article directed to boys—‘‘Love in the 
Making,” by Edson—in the Journal of Social Hygiene, May, 
1925, p. 272ff. 


67 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


the time when young people are most susceptible to 
religious motives. Doctor Exner wisely says: “The 
parallel awakening of sex impulses and of moral and 
religious feeling is too significant to be lost sight of 
in wisely directed sex education.” Because of a gen- 
eral neglect in sex instruction it is true that in many 
young men there is a very prevalent struggle with 
sex problems. Many young men because of a faulty 
training find the subject of sex altogether too dominant 
an element in their consciousness and continue unduly 
the perhaps necessary struggle into which adolescence 
with its new impulses plunged them. There is equally 
great need for proper guidance of young women in 
sex affairs. Many cases of unhappy lives may be 
traced in great degree to unwholesome ideas regarding 
matters of sex, or to ignorance. In a study made re- 
cently by Dr. Katherine Bement Davis, it is seen that 
some sort of wholesome sex instruction in girlhood con- 
tributes quite distinctly to the happiness of the mar- 
ried life of women. 

Social relations.—There are some valid arguments 
for the segregation of the sexes in school and college. 
There are advantages in the cooperation of boys in 
some activities, and corresponding advantages in the 
cooperation of girls, but there are great social and 
psychological advantages in the wholesome association 
in common tasks of young men and young women. 
The policy of sex segregation in earlier periods has 
produced in many cases very unwholesome attitudes 
toward sex problems. Nature, by providing for the 
family, seems to indicate the value in the daily asso- 
ciation of boys with girls and young men with young 

68 


THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 


women. Under proper supervision there is far greater 
benefit than harm in the normal friend!y comradeship 
between the sexes, and in the development in this en- 
vironment of the romances upon which depends the 
future of the race, physically, mentally, and morally. 
It is not our task to break down or destroy this social 
instinct. Its repression may involve the destruction 
of some of our most valued ideals. It is our task to 
direct this great central energy of human personality 
into wholesome channels. 

How young people may respond to sex impulses. 
—It is one of the important lessons of adolescence 
that the sex motives cannot always be immediately 
gratified. Marriage, for example, at the very begin- 
ning of the first courtship experience would be almost 
universally unfortunate. What can be done with the 
impulses that must be denied their immediate gratifica- 
tion? There are several possibilities which may take 
either wholesome or unwholesome forms. In the case 
of the impulse to immediate marriage, which sober 
judgment recognizes should be rejected in favor of 
further education and preparation, the attitude of de- 
ferring the gratification of the impulse may be as- 
sumed. You are young yet; marriage may well be 
deferred for a few years. Thus the impulse, while not 
forgotten, may be held in abeyance. Another possi- 
bility is the substitution of some other than the direct 
expression. Thus the denied sex motive may express 
itself in active work, in social service or in vigorous 
recreation. Many religious workers have transferred 
to the service of the church the devotion that has 
been denied expression in terms of marriage and fam- 

69 


PSYCHOLOGY: ORVLATERVADOMIES GIy 


ily life. Another though closely related way to treat 
denied impulses is by means of conscious and vigorous 
attacks upon an impulse that otherwise refuses to yield. 
Sometimes this results in a sort of inverted sex-atti- 
tude and the thwarted suitor becomes the misogynist, 
the woman hater. In other cases he throws himself 
into a strenuous life of labor or war or adventure. In 
such experiences as the above, young people need the 
confidence and counsel of more experienced friends, 
provided they have the qualities of understanding and 
sympathy. | 

Few adults realize the effect of their attitudes to- 
ward the love affairs of the young. Many young peo- 
ple suffer deeply, perhaps irreparably, from the 
thoughtless teasing of older people. Especially de- 
plorable are the superstitious tales about married life 
with which girls are often frightened by older women. 
The married state should be lifted, in our thought and 
in our counsel to our students, into a finer and purer 
atmosphere. 

It is a familiar fact that social influences have created 
a wide variety of conditions in which the sex impulses 
in young people are modified. In some portions of 
our country marriages at a very early age—hardly 
more than “child marriages’—are common. Of course 
such a condition affects young people powerfully and 
unwholesomely. On the other hand, our more cul- 
tured classes are lengthening the premarital period 
until late in the twenties or even in the thirties. It is 
interesting to learn, however, that the interval between 
graduation from college and marriage is, in the case 
of at least one college for women—Vassar—decreas- 


70 


THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 


ing. It is also said that sixty per cent of the graduates 
of Vassar marry, and that this proportion is increasing. 


PROBLEMS 


1. What provision does your community make for 
the wholesome acquaintance of young people? 

2. What proportion of the leading characters in the 
fiction you have read are young people? 

3. What should be the attitude of older people to- 
ward the love affairs of young men and women? 

4. How can older people properly and wholesomely 
aid young people in their problems of sex relation- 
ships? 

REFERENCES FOR FuRTHER READING 


The Girl, Dewar, Chapter V. 

The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter X. 

A Social Theory of Religious Education, Coe. Chap- 
as ahs 

The Psychology of Religion, Coe, Chapter IX. 

The Psychology of Early Adolescence, Mudge, Chap- 
ter IV. 

The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, 
Chapter VII. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapters XVII, 
MVALT 

The Unfolding of Personality, Mark, Chapter V. 

Social Psychology, McDougall, Supplementary Chap- 
ter II. 


APPROPRIATE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE THEMSELVES 


Sex and Common Sense, Royden. 

Men, Women and God, Gray. 

The Marriage Problem, Foerster. 

An American Idyll, Parker. 

Successful Family Life on the Moderate Income, 
Abel. 

The Family and Its Members, Spencer. 


71 


CHAPTER VI 
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 


OneE of the most significant educational essays of 
the nineteenth century is The Meaning of Infancy, by 
John Fiske. In this little book Mr. Fiske says that 
“man’s progressiveness and the length of his infancy 
are but two sides of one and the same fact.” After 
showing that low forms of life, such as the codfish 
and turtle, involve nothing that can properly be called 
infancy, since they “get their education before they 
are born,” everything being done for them by heredity 
and nothing by education, he discusses the educability 
of higher animals and shows the increasing length of 
infancy running parallel to the ever-increasing ability 
to respond to training. Applying this principle to 
man, he shows that human life requires a far longer 
period of preparation than that of any lower animal. 


As mental life became more complex and various, 
as the things to be learned kept ever multiplying, less 
and less could be done before birth, more and more 
must be left to be done in the earlier years of life. So 
instead of being born with a few simple capacities 
thoroughly organized, man came at last to be born 
with the germs of many complex capacities which 
were reserved to be unfolded and enhanced or checked 
and stifled by each individual. In this simple yet won- 
derful way there has been provided for man a long 
period during which his mind is plastic and malleable, 
and the length of this period has increased with civil- 


72 


SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 


ization until it now covers nearly one third of our 
lives. It is not that our inherited tendencies and apti- 
tudes are not still the main thing. It is only that we 
have at last acquired great power to modify them by 
training, so that progress may go on with ever-increas- 
ing sureness and rapidity. 


The lengthening of youth—By “infancy” Fiske 
means in his essay something more than the common 
use of that term. Infancy in the sense in which he 
uses the term covers the entire period of life prep- 
aration which somewhat corresponds to immaturity or 
legal minority. Coleridge speaks of the time when “the 
human mind was still in its nonage,”’ by which he 
means infancy in this sense. As Fiske has clearly in- 
dicated, an extended infancy represents a developing 
civilization, Among savage peoples boys and girls 
are grouped with the men and women very early, the 
ceremonies incident to puberty being frequently asso- 
ciated with the complete responsibility and recognition 
that the girl is now to be regarded as a woman, the 
boy as a man. Among various partially developed 
peoples the training of girls has been cut short by 
their very early marriage. With the advance of civil- 
ization, however, the period of recognized immaturity 
has lengthened until later adolescence has become a 
period of highly appreciated value as a preparation 
for life. 

Need of time for adjustments.—It is very impor- 
tant, in view of the need of our day for completely de- 
veloped and equipped young people, that any short- 
circuiting of experience which abbreviates the period of 
preparation shall be so far as possible avoided. Some- 


73 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


times we go to the other extreme, our economic and 
social programs requiring for many of our young peo- 
ple an undue postponement of marriage and the re- 
sponsibilities of mature manhood and womanhood. 
However, there are many young people who are pre- 
. maturely aged and whose last period of plasticity is 
shortened and rendered ineffective by their being 
pushed too soon into the responsibilities of an adult 
society. A normal later adolescence involves the reg- 
ular development of social impulses, attitudes, and 
habits. The young person thus normally trained in 
social living will become the socially minded and 
morally adjusted adult. It is hard for adult leaders 
of young people, and harder still for the young people 
themselves, to realize how many of the adjustments to 
social life must be made in later adolescence. Early 
adolescence was a period of stress and strain, as new 
impulses and new social attitudes called for readjusted 
reactions. The high-school period finds young people 
in the full process of shifting from the reactions of 
childhood to those of adult life, but there are many 
vestiges of the earlier methods of response to social 
situations still remaining in later youth. To make 
these adjustments requires time. There are many 
adults striving with difficulty to make up for defi- 
ciencies in their period of preparation. It is worth 
while to take time for thorough preparation whether 
this involves a college training or some other type of 
well-planned adjustment of life. 


A SocraL ProGRAM NEEDED 
Such is the hunger of youth for companionship that 
74 


SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 


the provision for wholesome social life is one of the 
major responsibilities of religious education. Many 
young people fail to find wholesome companionships 
and make their contacts in an unwholesome environ- 
ment. Other young people fail almost entirely to form 
acquaintances, particularly the young people coming 
to our great cities, and are oppressed sometimes to 
the point of physical and mental harm by an almost 
intolerable loneliness. Young people should have the 
opportunity of acquaintance with other young people 
both of their own sex and the opposite sex. They 
should have the opportunity of a sufficiently wide 
acquaintance so that they may form their own closer 
friendships with some degree of freedom. ‘There 
should be opportunities for young people to meet in 
groups, for there is a distinct hunger for a variety 
of friendships as well as for the more intimate asso- 
ciations. We can do no more important work for our 
young people than to provide such social programs as 
will create favorable conditions for the satisfaction 
of these special hungers. Because of the new inde- 
pendence and the sense of freedom from restrictions 
which were hitherto felt keenly, later adolescence is a 
critical time in moral development. A new liberty 
may result in reckless irresponsibility. Some young 
people have a surplus of money provided them by their 
parents. Others discover the ability to earn such a 
surplus, and most of our young people have an increas- 
ing degree of freedom in the use of money. Without 
our guidance they may become the prey of unscrupu- 
lous commercialism. We cannot safeguard young 
people at this period, however, by prohibitions or en- 


75 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


forced inhibitions. We can modify their environment 
and we can appeal indirectly, if not directly, to the 
high social idealism of these years. 

It is important in dealing with young people that 
we understand thoroughly the conditions under which 
they have lived and are living. The complexity and 
variety of the problems faced by workers with young 
people may be illustrated by the wide variations of 
social background which we may find in many of our 
church schools. Here are college students who work 
their way and others whose liberal bills are paid by 
wealthy fathers. Here are young clerks and stenog- 
raphers who work in offices. Here are factory em- 
ployees who live in crowded tenements. Here are 
care-free student girls of twenty, and other girls of 
the same age who are wives and mothers. Some have 
had the liberal influences of travel and education and 
others have been for years earning their own living. 
Of course this means a variety of problems for those 
who work with young people, for the state of any 
mind is deeply affected by physical and social environ- 
ment. Many young people, especially in our cities, 
are desperately lonely, and the desire for companion- 
ship may lead them into undesirable associations. The 
sympathetic teacher should know something of the 
past and present environment of every student. Some 
of our underprivileged young people deserve high 
credit for even a slow and halting progress toward 
worthy ideals of living. 


THE YoutH CONSCIOUSNESS 


No one who is acquainted with present-day world 
76 


SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 


conditions can be unaware of what is generally known 
as the Youth Movement. Stanley High, in a recent 
book, calls this The Revolt of Youth. Whatever term 
be most appropriate in describing this social phenom- 
enon, it is certain that in various countries young 
people are coming to a distinct consciousness of their 
responsibility and power in the world crises of to-day. 
Out of the social conditions of modern civilization and 
out of the precipitating retort of the Great War there 
has come an insistent demand that youth shall be recog- 
nized and given its opportunity. Young men have 
always been the fighters. The scattered veterans of 
the Civil War who are now old men were boys in ’61. 
But world conditions, a more generally advanced edu- 
cation, and other circumstances brought from the 
great world conflict a greater youth consciousness than 
has proceeded from any previous war. It was fought 
in a spirit of youthful enthusiasm, whether the aims 
and purposes of the various governments were mis- 
taken or worthy. From the standpoint of America, 
here was a great idealistic cause, a war to end war, 
to make the world safe for democracy, to establish the 
principles for which America has long stood in her 
international relationships with the world. At its 
close idealistic youth could not be satisfied to see the 
world conflict merge into a selfish strife of nationalistic 
diplomacy and political struggle. So there has sprung 
up in various countries a remarkable, spontaneous 
movement which illustrates the spirit of later adoles- 
cence. This involves such individual movements as 
the Young Republic in France, the Wandervoegel in 
Germany, and similar movements all over Europe and 


77 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


in different form in our own country. Some of these 
may be traced to impulses before 1914, but all have 
been vigorous since the Armistice. It is in later ado- 
lescence that the tremendous energy which has been 
developing throughout the adolescent years comes to 
full and practical expression. The world’s progress is 
a progress of youth. Not only the wars of the world, 
but the movements for world peace and world progress 
are dependent upon young people. The young people 
in our colleges and universities are assuming a decided 
leadership in matters of moral reform and in matters 
of social and political improvement. The great stu- 
dent conferences in Indianapolis, Louisville, and other 
cities are of special significance. 


TRAINING IN LEADERSHIP 


Throughout childhood and the earlier periods of 
adolescence the qualities of leadership have been de- 
veloping, but authority has been largely superimposed 
by adults. Adult control is possible in dealing with 
children and to a lesser degree in dealing with the 
earlier adolescent periods; but by the time later adoles- 
cence is reached adult supervision becomes relatively 
inefficient. In a democratically organized society, with 
a normal degree of democracy in the schools, young 
people of this period should have learned the weak- 
ness of autocratic or arbitrary government and the 
value of democratic group control. 

Developing initiative-——In training young people 
we should keep this principle clearly in mind. Whether 
we are working with young people in college or in 
industrial groups, we should seek to provide them 

78 


SOCTAL DEVELOPMENT 


with practice in public speech and discussion, in de- 
liberative social action under parliamentary rules, in 
cooperation in a wide variety of civic and economic 
affairs. It is one of the fine opportunities of leaders 
of young people to discover, encourage, and develop 
the qualities of leadership. Our young people’s or- 
ganizations should recognize as a chief function the 
development of leadership in the young people them- 
selves. Sometimes it requires a bit of self-denial for 
older people who are interested in various organiza- 
tions for young people to withdraw from such asso- 
ciations, but the presence of even able and sympathetic 
adults many times tends to repress the initiative and 
leadership of the younger folks. And when an older 
leader takes part in the activities of a young people’s 
group it should not be as a director but, rather, as a 
constituent member of the group. 

A case of group activity—Dr. Mary E. Moxcey 
gives the following interesting report of a young peo- 
ple’s group which shows a healthy development from 
within. 


A little group of seven or eight young people, called 
the Ivy Club, planned to take Sunday afternoon hikes 
together. Then they thought they would enjoy singing 
together after they returned, and went to the empty 
church for that purpose. They were hungry and some 
of the older people agreed to furnish food in the 
church parlor: the young people waited on themselves 
and washed their own dishes. They enjoyed the song 
service, and someone suggested inviting people to tell 
them about the worth-while things in their own city. 
The pastor was announced for the last indoor session. 
“Our minister will speak to us, not preach a sermon.” 


79 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


The little group of young people grew and were hav- 
ing such enjoyable Sunday evenings that the older 
people asked permission to attend. Doctor Moxcey 
thus describes a meeting at which she was asked to 
speak : 

The young people came in from their supper and 
occupied the front seats, laughing and chatting quietly 
and happily. The older people and a few little chil- 
dren sat further back. The front row on one side was 
occupied by a class of Intermediate girls, about one 
half of them from the Orphans’ Home. The front 
row on the other side was filled with the hikers, four 
or five of the eighteen-year-old girls being in knicker- 
bockers and the boys in knickers and sweaters. The 
president of the “Ivy Club” led the meeting with great 
poise and dignity but with boyish naturalness. He is 
eighteen years old and studying for the ministry. First 
they sang, with good voices and great enthusiasm, sev- 
eral gospel hymns of the better type. Then a young 
lady played a selection on the German concert zither, 
which was heartily encored. After another song or two 
a young woman from another church sang a solo of 
excellent church music with a good soprano voice. The 
president had meanwhile quietly asked one of the girl 
hikers, who was the Sunday-school teacher of the 
twenty thirteen-year-old girls and also one of the chil- 
dren’s librarians at Central Library, to introduce the 
speaker, which she did delightfully. 

My talk was mostly an informal weaving in of 
answers to questions I had been asked beforehand: 
“How did you go at it to write a book?” “What do you 
do in a Sunday-school editorial office?” Through this 
I led up to the importance of religious education and 
the “thrill” of being young in this particular stage of 
the world’s history, challenging them to create a 
Christian world and emphasizing the honor of being 
asked to teach a Sunday-school class and the necessity 
of getting ready to do it well. I spoke briefly of the 


80 


SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 


need for religious education directors and professional 
leaders of boy and girl activity. During the talk I 
once or twice referred to the twenty-seven million 
children and young people without religious instruc- 
tion of any kind. 

The president referred sincerely to the stimulus the 
address had been to them, but emphatically to some of 
us. “We've got to bring that twenty-seven million 
here!’ 

This seems to be from first to last the young people’s 
own project and responsibility. It was truly a reli- 
gious service, but the progress from the supper after 
the dusty and hungry people came in from their hike, 
through the hearty song service to the impressive 
prayer at the end, without any “change of gear” to 
mark the beginning of a “‘devotional meeting,” seemed 
very natural and delightful. 


THE SERVICE CHALLENGE 

The chief task of workers with young people is to 
harness the fine enthusiastic idealism of youth to the 
practical problems of life and the tasks which are most 
worth while. This is a period in which a challenge 
to sacrificial service makes a strong appeal. The sac- 
rificial spirit is keen in early and middle adolescence 
and there are many examples of fine courage shown 
by boys and girls in the early teens. But now courage 
is tempered by reason, decisions are more likely to be 
permanent, the expressions of enthusiastic service are 
‘more carefully planned and better adapted to secure 
wholesome results. The altruism of later adolescence 
is not a vague, dreamy ideal but a definite policy of 
service. Young people enjoy responsibility for the 
social life of which they are a part. They turn to prac- 
tical problems to discharge these responsibilities. The 

81 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


dreams or vague ideals of earlier periods are now in- 
vested with concrete plans of service. It is the ideal- 
ism of youth that has sent forth the representatives 
of the Student Violunteer Movement by the thousands 
into foreign fields. It is this enthusiastic idealism that 
has carried on the service of a variety of welfare or- 
ganizations of young people, such as the Christian As- 
sociations, and in thus harnessing the power of youth 
to the real tasks of to-day the church can perform her 
greatest service. It is one of the tragedies of our 
modern church life that so large a part of the enthusi- 
astic energies of our young people is diverted from the 
social service which might be rendered. Give the 
young people a chance and they are willing and glad 
to work out practical problems for themselves. Young 
life needs a great deal of activity. One of the chief 
dangers of many of our young people is too large a ° 
surplus of unassigned leisure. This is a danger of 
normal young people and particularly of the supra- 
normal. I have in mind the case of a young man who 
was decidedly above the average in his mental ability. 
This meant that in college he had a surplus of leisure 
above his slower-moving associates. This leisure was 
largely spent in not altogether harmless fun. Because 
so little time was required to learn a lesson, relatively 
little of practical value was gotten out of his college 
work. He needed this inspiration of effort beyond that 
required for the tasks assigned him. Because of this 
lack his behavior became more and more obnoxious to 
faculty and students alike, until at last he was expelled 
from the institution. Fortunately, he himself was 
stimulated by this experience to a better adjustment 
82 


SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 


to his work, and his undoubted talents have been dem- 
onstrated in the brilliant public service of his later 
life. 


Various SoOcIAL CHARACTERISTICS 


It should be remembered that in later adolescence the 
social impulses are at their high tide. Young people 
of this age are tremendously concerned with social 
approbation. It has become important to them now to 
conform to social standards in speech, manners, cloth- 
ing, tastes, and interests. Occasionally there appears 
an independent spirit who delights in being a law to 
himself and refuses to conform to conventional 
standards, but, in general, the period under consid- 
eration is one in which the conventions of society are 
more highly valued than in the preceding periods. 

Unconventionality—wWhile later adolescents re- 
spect conventions, these are their own conventions 
rather than those of their elders. Many of the conven- 
tions of later adolescence involve a high degree of free- 
dom and informal action. Enthusiasm, college songs 
and cheers, all sorts of jollifications and revelries, even 
acts of lawlessness, may become conventionalized in 
the lives of young people. Young people are seldom 
unapproachable or unfriendly, although they are quick 
to recognize the infraction of any of their social rules. 

Organizations.—In this period the development of 
the “gang instinct” looks forward toward a further de- 
velopment of the relation of young people in groups. 
Thus we have various clubs and societies organized 
during the high-school years and a tendency to form 
still more closely organized associations of this sort 


83 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


in later adolescence. Whatever be their nature, there 
will be organizations, clubs, fraternities, of some type 
and under some name, in every college and in every 
group of young people. The interest in form, ritual, 
insignia, titles of office, and such symbols of fraternity 
life is keen during this period, and the loyalty of young 
people to the various organizations with which they 
are affiliated is a very distinct element in their social 
behavior. 

It is very important that the advisers of young peo- 
ple stimulate the ideals by which they will rightly de- 
cide questions of various social alliances. It makes 
a vast difference in the life of young men and women, 
whether as students in college, entering business life, 
or entering a community as residents, with what or- 
ganizations they become affiliated, whether with those 
having a high moral tone or with those which may 
insidiously injure the fiber of character. 

Individuality.—It is difficult to indicate the prevail- 
ing social characteristics of this period since all the 
individual differences between young people and all 
the differences depending upon racial and social vari- 
ations are becoming prominent. Young people are 
more highly individual in their character and behavior 
in later adolescence than in any earlier period. There 
are many variations from any series of qualities which 
might be mentioned. Thus, while it is normal for 
young people to form alliances with other young peo- 
ple of the opposite sex which tend to develop into the 
life partnership of marriage, there are many who still 
exhibit the characteristics more normal in middle ado- 
lescence. There are occasional “crushes” of the high- 

84 


SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 


school-girl type, intimate chumships which seem to 
dominate life, and various other unusual characteris- 
tics. Normally, our young people in this period have 
wider social interests which merge into larger social 
groups and feel broader social sympathies than in any 
earlier period. 


PROBLEMS 


1. At what age should young people marry? 

2. What are the social results of a long period of 
training for professional life? 

3. How can adults help to develop initiative and 
leadership in young people? 

4. Recall your experiences in lacer adolescence with 
chums and other special friends and compare these ex- 
periences with those of earlier periods. 


Books FOR FuRTHER XEADING 


The Psychology of Religion, Coe, Chapter VIII. 

The Psychology of Early Adolescence, Mudge, 
Chapter IX. 

The Religious Education of Adolescence, Richard- 
son, Chapter XI. 

A Social Theory of Religious Education, Coe, 
Chapter XV. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey,:Chapter XIV. 

The Girl, Dewar, Chapters V and VI. 

The Meaning of Infancy, Fiske. 

Handbook for Workers with Young People, 
Thompson, Chapter II. 


85 


CHAPTER VII 
THE PLAY LIFE OF EATER ADORESGE er 


Piay is not a phenomenon of childhood only, 
neither does it end with adolescence. It normally con- 
tinues throughout life, having various forms and vari- 
ous manifestations according to age, social conditions, 
and other limiting situations. Recent years have been 
demonstrating more and more the value of play for 
young people and adults as well as for children. Na- 
ture provides through play for the pleasant restoration 
of worn and fatigued bodily tissues and nerve cells and 
for the resulting degrees of energy expressed in bodily 
or mental activity. Play of the wholesome type is es- 
sential re-creation. It is a restoration, a revivifying 
of the organism. Modern civilization perhaps more 
than that of any previous period in the world’s history 
is marked by a high expenditure of nervous energy. 
Ours is a time of intense living, of nervous activity 
which is a constant drain upon the supporting organ- 
ism. To offset this drain there must be some type of 
restorative process. Plenty of sleep, good food, fresh 
air and other hygienic and sanitary provisions cooper- 
ate in this restoration. But in an era of high nervous 
tension such as apparently characterizes our own time, 
in this country, there is special necessity for play. 

A safety valve.—Play pleasantly releases various 
energies which act as a safety valve for the nervous 
system. For the organism is not merely a machine for 

86 


PLAY LIFE, OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


producing energy—so much production and so much 
expenditure—it is a complicated mechanism in which 
certain nerve cells may be overstimulated while others 
may have a repletion of strength which cannot be 
transferred, but the discharge of which tends to bal- 
ance the nervous system. Thus, the office worker 
constantly employs in his work the nerve cells of the 
brain, the eyes, the hands. These comprise but a rel- 
atively small number of the nerve cells of the body. 
While these cells are being depleted the nerve cells 
which control action of the large muscles are being 
overcharged. While there is no direct transfer from a 
brain cell to a muscle cell, there is a curious fatiguing 
effect in the high stimulation of one without the cor- 
responding discharge of the other. But if the office 
worker, after his working hours, spends an hour in a 
lively game of tennis, the overcharged cells are pleas- 
urably discharged while the overstimulated cells are 
thereby relieved, the total effect being one of restora- 
tion of nervous balance and energy. On the other 
hand, the man who is constantly engaged in manual 
labor may receive a corresponding recreational benefit 
by engaging in reading or some other form of pleas- 
urable sedentary occupation during his free hours. 
It thus appears that recreation should differ accord- 
ing to individual needs—that, according to the type of 
expenditure of nervous energy, one should find some 
means of getting back to a normal nervous state. 
Types of recreation.—Sometimes, when we are. 
wholly fatigued, physically and mentally, we need the 
cessation of activity. Under certain conditions mere 
relaxation is recreation; but, besides this, most of us, 
87 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


when we are tired, prefer to turn to some type of 
activity determined by our nature and our needs. The 
hour of rest is made more pleasurable and effective for 
some women by doing fancywork, for some men by 
working in a garden or in a garage, and for all of us 
there are special forms of relaxation and recreation 
which are agreeable. While most of us have our mo- 
ments when we prefer solitude, in general, our play 
and recreation are social rather than solitary. 

A human social trait—With the tremendous social 
interest of young people in later adolescence, it is not 
strange that social play becomes of very great impor- 
tance. Somewhere, in a wholesome or an evil environ- 
ment, our young people will assemble for play, for 
some type of recreation. It is in human nature thus 
to desire to mingle in the hours of leisure. It is a 
sad thing that commercialism has played so insistently 
upon this human tendency that many of our young peo- 
ple have hardly any place where they can meet in a 
wholesome social environment for recreation. For 
many of our young people the unsupervised dance 
hall, the unwholesome type of theatrical performance, 
the commercialized gaming place, and the saloon have 
been the only readily accessible places of amusement. 
All of these questionable institutions have lived very 
largely upon the social impulses of our young people. 
The saloon in the days when that institution was 
licensed, was not patronized merely for the pleastire of 
drinking. It developed the drink habit very largely 
from the social impulses of its patrons. But young 
people, if they have the opportunity, will take part 
with equal zest and enthusiasm in more wholesome 

88 


PLAY LIFE OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


pleasures. The play impulse, like any instinctive 
tendency, may be perverted and wrongly used or it 
may be employed in the highest service. Play ex- 
presses joy, but it is not mere frivolity. Frivolity is in 
reality a very small element in play. Most of our 
play is of a more serious type. It is enjoyable, but is 
not a mere wasting of time. In recent years the atten- 
tion of educators has been directed more and more to 
play as an essential part of any wholesome educa- 
tional policy. 

The need for a general recreational program is fur- 
ther indicated by the increasing amount of leisure 
which our young people have. Doubtless we need 
more leisure hours than our grandparents had, but 
unless we employ these hours in some sort of whole- 
some and constructive activity they may do far more 
harm than good. 

Play and religion.—It is just as important that 
play should be allied with religious education as with 
the education of the public school. A very close con- 
nection between wholesome play and religion has been 
indicated by Professor Seashore. He says: 


We feel more religious when we play golf, sail, climb 
mountains, or bask in the sun than when held down to 
our fixed tasks of work. Religion is affiliated with 
play, in that play implies the launching of oneself upon 
the elevating forces in life; it represents an attitude 
of well-being and surrender to the beneficent forces of 
nature. 

As life develops and becomes more intellectualized, 
spiritualized, and refined in its sentiments, the play 
attitude matures into the more serious types of self- 
expression. Quiet worship, contemplation, teaching, 


89 


PSYCHOLOGY ‘OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


and ministration become the equivalent, in the devel- 
oped soul, of games in the undeveloped. The attitude 
is similar; a parallel purpose is served; kindred in- 
stincts operate; there is simply an adaptation of the 
self-expression to the state of development. 


Sports and athletics——Later adolescence has not 
outgrown the need for physical play. In fact, the value 
of such recreation in adult life is recognized to-day 
more than ever before. President Roosevelt and 
President Wilson kept themselves fit in the midst of 
the terrific pressure of the presidency by their regu- 
larity in athletic games and sports. Our young people 
need a considerable degree of muscular play. The 
physical education departments of most of our educa- 
tional institutions make very inadequate provision for 
play for the masses of students, while they make 
thorough provision for the play of chosen champions 
who get the chief benefit of athletic games. There is 
very great need for more forms of play whereby, with- 
out sacrificing the wholesome sport instincts of our 
young people, they shall all have the direct benefit of 
athletic games. 

Sports for girls—lIt is significant that athletic 
games for girls have made very rapid progress. While 
there are cases in which they should be specially 
adapted to the girls rather than being the same for 
both sexes, vigorous team play and athletic games are 
wholesome for young women as well as for young 
men. In a recent study of early adolescent girls? 

1 Psychology in Daily Life, Seashore, published, 1913, by D. 


Appleton, New York, p. 30f. 
2 Pedagogical Seminary, March 1923, Vol. XXX, No. 1, p. 45ff. 


90 


PLAY LIFE OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


I have indicated evidence that girls of a superior type, 
that is, girls above the average mentally, are very fre- 
quently “tom-boys”’ in early adolescence. They delight 
in the active games for boys rather than in doll play or 
in quiet games. For example, one young woman re- 
calls her early adolescence in these words: “Nobody 
understood me. I did not wish to grow up. I was 
just a wild sort of tom-boy who loved to run and have 
a good time. Why I had not been made a boy always 
seemed a great mistake. ... Skirts, especially long 
or tight ones, were an unnecessary impediment to free 
movement.” 

It is a wholesome and normal thing for girls in early 
adolescence to be fond of open-air sports, hiking and 
tree climbing and similar activities. The interest of 
early adolescence in outdoor life should be carried over 
into middle and later adolescence, and throughout this 
period a regular program of out-of-door exercise is 
of definite value to young men and young women alike. 

Social play.—There are many different types of 
social play which may be of the highest value in char- 
acter training and in the social adjustments of this 
period. Much time has been spent in condemning cer- 
tain forms of social play. Is it not far more impor- 
tant to develop a positive program of social recreation 
which will have a definite value in the training of our 
young people and their adjustment to the social life 
which is before them? A series of very wise principles 
to be applied to amusements was stated by Washing- 
ton Gladden: 


Amusement is not an end, but the means to an end. 
9I 


PSYCHOLOGY OF*LATERVADOLESGENGE 


When it begins to be the principal thing for which one 
lives, or when in pursuing it the mental powers are en- 
feebled and the bodily health impaired, it falls under 
just condemnation. 

Amusements which consume the hours which ought 
to be sacred to sleep are censurable. 

Amusements that call us away from work that we 
are bound to do are pernicious just to the extent to 
which they cause us to be neglectful or unfaithful. 

Amusements that arouse or stimulate morbid appre- 
hensions or unlawful passions, or cause us to be rest- 
less or discontented, are to be avoided. 

Any indulgence in amusement which has a tendency 
to weaken our respect for the great interests of life or 
to loosen our hold on the eternal verities of the spirit- 
ual realm is so far fraught with danger to us. 


The amusement problem.—The regulation of the 
amusements of young people should not be through 
coercion from without but through the discrimination 
and judgment of the young people themselves in the 
light of the highest moral and religious idealism. The 
attempt to repress the social impulses of our young 
people may have a disastrous effect. Henry A. Atkin- 
son tells of a girl whose parents vigorously opposed her 
frequenting public places of amusement. She had 
plenty of leisure and took matters into her own hands, 
frequently attending parties at a questionable dance 
hall, where she met a man by whom she was pitifully 
misled. Hers had been a life of forced repression. 
Her mother exclaimed: “It seems impossible that she 
should have become acquainted with such a man. Who 
is he? I never heard of him.” Is it not possible that 
a more confidential relationship between this girl and 


Q2 


PLAY LIFE OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


her mother might have saved her the danger which 
meant ruin to her? 

There are dangers enough in commercialized and 
unsupervised amusements, but we must not forget the 
insistent demand of our young people for social recrea- 
tion. Shutting them up, repressing them, will not 
solve the problem. It can be solved only through their 
own discrimination, which it is the work of parents 
and teachers to guide and direct into wholesome chan- 
nels through all the years of youth. 

Clubs and societies.—The play impulse leads our 
young people to organize themselves into various 
clubs, fraternities, and other associations. It is said 
that leisure has to supply three great needs; first, 
physical refreshment; second, mental refreshment ; 
third, free social intercourse. It is in the interest of 
national citizenship, the service of the church and 
community welfare and the social adjustment of the 
individual that these organizations be wisely and 
wholesomely planned. In them young people develop 
the qualities of leadership. In their community life 
they learn the give-and-take of social situations. It 
is an important thing for our young people that they 
ally themselves intelligently with the organizations 
which will be of service to them and in which they 
can be of service to others. 

Hobbies.—Part of the play of young people should 
be involved in hobbies. It is no slight thing that 
young people develop avocations that are pleasant and 
profitable. In the carrying on of such avocations there 
is very much of the play spirit. It is not possible for 
every young man and woman with a musical talent 


93 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


to become a professional musician; but it is possible 
for many to make music a profitable individual hobby. 
Others, because of a different type of talent, may find 
some of the manual arts—painting, modeling, lace- 
making or any one of the vast number of handcrafts— 
pleasant and profitable as hobbies. Interest your stu- 
dents in gardening or photography or in country walks 
or motoring or boating. You may be able to aid them 
in discovering a congenial and interesting method of 
spending leisure time. A well-chosen hobby is a 
valuable safety valve. 

Play in work.—The spirit of play should also per- 
meate the vocations of young people. The well-chosen 
vocation is not drudgery. The successful farmer finds 
real enjoyment in the activities of his farm life. The 
highly successful merchant enjoys his day’s work. 
There are many men who can say that they do not take 
vacations for pleasure, for they find just as much 
pleasure in their daily work. They take vacations 
deliberately for the recreational value which they may 
add to their own powers. 

It is very important that our young people, in se- 
lecting their life-work, find a pleasant occupation in 
which they can be really interested. This does not 
mean that one should seek an occupation which is 
effortless, but it should be a work to which one is 
well adapted and in which one may in consequence 
find satisfaction and something of the spirit of play. 
Young people in later adolescence have, however, 
reached the point where they may be expected to sacri- 
fice pleasure for some ulterior end to be attained. 
Life is not a matter of soft snaps but of hard, inten- 


04 


PLAY LIFE OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


sive work, and this should be the period when our 
young people are led to devote themselves with serious 
intensity to the sometimes tedious and arduous duties 
of life. We should, however, lead them to find in 
whatever they do the highest degree of satisfaction 
and to deliberately motivate their hours of drudgery 
with a high appreciation of values to be attained 
through such hard work.’ 


A PROGRAM OF PLAY 


A program of play for young people should take 
into consideration the free instincts which are in- 
volved in play. Joseph Lee has enumerated seven 
principal play instincts—creation, rhythm, hunting, 
fighting, nurture, curiosity, team play. There are 
other instincts which are closely involved in the im- 
pulse to play. Perhaps all the separate instincts may 
be in some degree related to the play spirit. Involved 
in all these instincts is the tendency to be satisfied with 
self-expressive activity. The little child loves to run 
without any particular aim or purpose except the 
pleasure of free activity. Older children develop mo- 
tives of competition, and run that they may individu- 
ally win a race. Adolescent young people still enjoy 
a race, but perhaps the motive is modified into loyalty 
to an athletic team or a school. But the same impulse 
to activity, to muscular movement, may be found in 
all these cases. 

A program for young people should include various 
types of play suited to the social and individual varia- 


8’ The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, p. 48ff. 
95 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


tions and involving the various motives and instincts 
which underlie the desire for play. Some of the de- 
sirable activities for young people are the following: 


PuHysIcAL ACTIVITIES 


Athletics—Sprints and long-distance runs, hur- 
dling, relay races, field events such as jumping, shot- 
put, hiking, skating, etc. Team games such as bas- 
ket ‘ball, baseball. Mass games such as circle games, 
opposed line games, competitive games. 

Aquatic Sports —Swimming, boating, sailing, life- 
saving, diving, water races and games. 

Camping is a summer-time program that should 
be included in our plans. There are several excel- 
lent books on camping and woodcraft. 


SocrAL ACTIVITIES 


Parties and Socials ——Celebration of special days, 
Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s, etc., wienie 
roasts, picnics, hikes, indoor track meets, hay rides, 
sleigh rides, poverty party, story and joke night, 
father-and-son and mother-and-daughter banquets. 

Entertainments.—Plays, pageants, mock conven- 
tions, mock trials, musical programs, lectures, min- 
strels, stunt night, demonstrations of class activities, 
athletic exhibition, glee clubs, choirs, orchestras, 
fairs, festivals, bazaars. 

Community Nights or Neighborhood Nights.— 
Motion pictures, popular and familiar songs for 
community singing. 


Fundamental importance of play.—All our plans 
for young people should recognize the fundamental 
importance of recreation. The relation of religion to 
play has been stated by J. J. Milnes: 


Play is religion’s basic ally, and it is high time the 
church was marshaling all her forces. Religion can 


96 


PLAY LIFE OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


never wholly take the place of play, and should not 
wage her battles without its aid. Beware of a reli- 
gion that substitutes itself for everything; that makes 
monks. Seek a religion that appropriates everything ; 
that makes Christians.’’4 


PROBLEMS 


1. How large a part should the church and the 
church school take in directing recreation? 

2. What are the best methods for overcoming the 
influence of harmful commercialized amusements? 

3. What are the values or the disadvantages of 
fraternities? 

4. What are the hobbies or avocations which you 
have perceived in the cases of socially influential 
people? 

5. How can the church and the church school in- 
fluence the selection of the more wholesome types of 
amusement? 


Books FOR FURTHER READING 


Handbook for Workers with Young People, Thomp- 
son. : 

Psychology of Early Adolescence, Mudge, Chapter 
Vill 


Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, Chapter 
i BES 


The Girl, Dewar, Chapter IT. 

Play in Education, Lee. 

Educational Psychology, Briefer Course, Thorndike, 
Chapter V. 

The Church and the People’s Play, Atkinson. 

The Church and the Young Man’s Game, Milnes. 

Psychology in Daily Life, Seashore, Chapter I. 

Keeping in Condition, Moore. 

From Youth to Manhood, Hall. 


4 The Church and the Young Men’s Game, Milnes, p. 49. Used 
by permission of The Pilgrim Press. 


97 


PSYCHOLOGY) OFMVATERVADOLES CRiGE 


Leadership of Girls’ Activities, Moxcey. 

Physical Health and Recreation for Girls, Moxcey. 

Good Times for Girls, Moxcey. 

An Introduction to Social Psychology, McDougall, 
Chapter XIV. 

Psychology: A Study of Mental Life, Woodworth, 
Chapter XIX. 


EE SES 


CHAPTER, VIII] 


THE HARMONIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF 
PERSONALITY 


THE ancient Greeks recognized in the harmonious 
development of the body and in the corresponding de- 
velopment of the mind and soul the highest ideals of 
education. A sound mind and a sound body seemed 
to them the desirable educational attainment. A bal- 
ance of powers and impulses may well be recognized 
as a natural ideal for modern education. 

The normal tendency of adolescence is to settle and 
fix the nervous constitution so that by the beginning 
of adult life the personality is relatively harmonious. 
The adjustments necessary to produce this harmony 
are various. In early adolescence it is sometimes dif- 
ficult to see the direction of development, and in mid» 
dle adolescence there are still perplexing cross-currents 
and contradictions in the development of personality. 
To those who deal with boys and girls in these earlier 
periods, their personalities sometimes seem to be almost 
without form and void. In later adolescence we can 
distinguish a decided development in the harmonizing 
of impulses and the production of a relatively bal- 
anced personality. We must realize that there are 
wide individual variations, and that the life of perfect 
balance—physical, mental, and moral—is ideal and 
rare, but the processes leading to a balance of impulses 
are present throughout normal adolescence. 


99 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


INFLUENCES DANGEROUS TO MENTAL HEALTH 


A wholesale development of personality is attained 
by normal young people in a normal environment. 
But there are certain influences about us which are 
constantly providing for an increase of degeneracy. 
Particularly may be mentioned the two great racial 
poisons, alcohol and venereal diseases. Both of these 
are avoidable but they are closely related to the emo- 
tional and feeling life. These and other influences 
make the problems of social and mental hygiene ex- 
ceedingly difficult. Mental abnormalities are not due 
to some mysterious force coming into the personality. 
They are caused by the exaggeration or reduction of 
existing qualities. Some minds are erratic, eccentric, 
or unbalanced, in that some instincts are overdevel- 
oped—out of harmony with other natural tendencies. 
Thus, fear, for example, is a natural, universal, hu- 
man tendency, but fear may be exaggerated to a point 
of unhealthful emphasis or may even reach the point 
of an extreme phobia and become involved in acute 
mental disease. It is the desirable thing, the normal 
thing, for all the impulses of a personality to be bal- 
anced and harmonious. A great personality, a genius, 
has certain highly developed impulses, but some 
geniuses are erratic, strong and vigorous in some ele- 
ments of personality but weak in others. The greatest 
men of all time have been those in whom a tremendous 
energy of impulse has been accompanied by a high 
degree of control. Thus it has been observed that 
great men are likely to show contradictory characters 
apparently opposed to one another, each of them being 

100 


DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY 


strong. The total effect of these impulses is a strong 
personality. This seems to be true in the case of the 
greatest personality the world ever knew. A great 
number of tendencies strong and vigorous have been 
observed in the personality of Jesus, but no other has 
ever held this tendency in such perfect control and 
balance as he. He could be gentle and he could be in- 
dignant ; he could be calm and he could become excited ; 
and there were many other elements in that most mar- 
velous development of personality. 

Joy and melancholy.—Among the opposing tenden- 
cies of adolescence none is more noticeable than the 
tendency to melancholy as over against the tendencies 
to joy and hilarity. Melancholy seems an interloper 
in youth, but there are many hours of gloomy brooding 
in all periods of adolescence. A study of the earlier 
work of our English poets indicates that in most of 
them there is a distinct strain of melancholy which is 
frequently out of proportion to that appearing in their 
later works. Thus among Longfellow’s juvenile 
poems his first verses, so far as we know, written in 
early adolescence, begin with this stanza: 


“Cold, cold is the north wind and rude is the blast 
That sweeps like a hurricane loudly and fast, 
As it moans through the tall waving pines lone and 
drear, 
Sighs a requiem sad o’er the warrior’s bier.” 


Throughout his earlier poems you find such ex- 
pressions as “love’s own melancholy,” “our blighted 
joys,” “sad despondency,”’ and similar melancholy 
phrases. He writes a “Dirge Over a Nameless 

101 


PSYCHOLOGY: OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


Grave.” He tells a story of the Indian girl who threw 
herself over the cliff because of her false-hearted 
lover, and muses as he sits at his window watching the 
lights of the field disappear: 
“Thus, thought I, our joys must die, 
Yes—the brightest from earth we win; 
Till each turns away, with a sigh, 
To the lamp that burns brightly within.” 


The first in the published list of Lowell’s earlier 
poems is a threnody. The second begins, “The sea 
is lonely, the sea is dreary’; and although there are 
expressions of joy and ecstasy in some of his earlier 
poems, there are many instances of this characteristic 
adolescent melancholy. Among the earlier poems of 
Sir Walter Scott is one which concludes with “the 
tear of parting sorrow,” and his first publication was 
a translation or imitation of two German ballads in 
each of which is a distinctly melancholy note. The 
first of the published undergraduate poems of Edward 
Rowland Sill begins: 

“At the North, far away, 
Rolls a great sea for aye, 
Silently, awfully,” 
and throughout these early poems may be found such 
passages as 

“... the rustle of a step, 

Which made my heart beat in those years ago— 
Which makes me weep to listen for it now.” 


He writes of “mournful tongues,” or “reluctant sighs,” 

of “life-long wretchedness,” and at the conclusion of 

his commencement poem, after discussing hypocrisies 
102 


I 


DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY 


and discontent and the solitude of the soul, he con- 
cludes with a prayer: 


“That he, who walks with sanction from Thy hand, 
Some token of its presence may have seen, 
Beneath which we may tread the path serene 

Into the stillness of the unknown land.” 


Remember that the melancholy here discussed is a 
natural and normal characteristic of adolescence. It 
requires sympathetic treatment, and this depends upon 
confidential friendship and upon our ability to recog- 
nize the moods of young people. We may compensate 
for melancholy moods by providing a wholesome, 
cheerful, social atmosphere in which a mood of opti- 
mistic cheerfulness may be substituted. 

Nervous abnormalities—Among our young people 
are many cases of some degree of nervous abnormality. 
Aside from the more extreme derangements there are 
two types of nervous abnormality which may be con- 
trasted. They represent extremes of deviation from 
the normally balanced tendencies. One of these is 
neurasthenia, which may be briefly described as a 
nervous. condition due to the wunderdischarge of 
nervous energy. At the other extreme is hysteria, 
due to an overdischarge of nervous energy. Each 
of these in a milder degree is a form of what we 
call nervousness. The normal, healthy person is 
somewhere near the mid-point between the ex- 
tremes, but probably all of us have tendencies in 
one direction or the other, or sometimes to both 
alternately. While nervous and mental aberrations 
may occur in any period of life, they often be- 

103 


PSYCHOLOGY’ OF HATER ADOLESGENGE 


gin, or at least come to the surface in later adoles- 
cence. Dr. Stewart Patton, of Princeton, has recently 
made a study of the mental troubles of the university 
period in which he has found a surprising amount of 
pronounced mental trouble and probability of future 
difficulties. There is no means of knowing whether 
stich troubles are increasing or decreasing, but it is 
interesting to know that Doctor Patton indicates that 
such mental difficulties are part of the “absurdly high 
price for what we call modern civilization.” 

Tendencies to a dangerous nervous condition may 
be largely controlled by a wholesome environment, 
congenial companionships, and a proper division of 
time. It is important to our psychic health that we 
spend some time in play, some time in work, some 
time in solitude, some time in society. The leaders of 
young people can be of great assistance to them in 
observing their needs for a balanced program of physi- 
cal and mental activity and rest. 

Daydreams.—‘‘Adolescent time is daydreaming 
time,’ and sometimes our students develop a pro- 
nounced tendency to daydreaming. Within limits this 
is a normal adolescent trait, but it sometimes leads 
into what has been called the “flight from reality,” the 
withdrawal of interest from the normally interesting 
affairs of real life. Often this is the result of personal 
disappointments or disillusionments or other difficul- 
ties of adjustment, and sometimes the daydream be- 
comes the focus for a dangerous complex. Certainly, 
we would not deny youth its dreams, but it is well for 
us to encourage those activities that will develop an 
interest in the problems of reality. We must not dis- 

104 


DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY 


courage the future poet or artist or philosopher, but 
we should set before our students the ideal of a whole- 
somely balanced attitude toward life. 


INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT 


Considering the proportional amount of study which 
has been given to the intellectual nature, it seems sur- 
prising that so little definite knowledge of the intelli- 
gence of later adolescence has been secured. There 
has been a great amount of testing by means of the 
various mental measures devised in recent times, but 
the experimenting has resulted in relatively little defi- 
nite information concerning the intellectual develop- 
ment of this period. Intelligence tests have come and 
gone, have become popular and have been criticized. 
Certainly, no intelligence test thus far devised is ade- 
quate as a sole measure of intelligence. We are deal- 
ing with very complicated elements when we try to 
measure any factor in our mental life, but the experi- 
ments in mental measurements should go forward and 
should be applied to the study of adolescence as well 
as to the study of childhood and adult life. We should 
always recognize the limitations of a psychological test. 
There are many things which it does not measure. 
There are moral qualities which enter into intelligence 
and many other elements with which intelligence is 
correlated which thus far have refused to lend them- 
selves to any satisfactory test method.? 


1 The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, Chapters VI 
and IX 

2For a discussion of the validity and limitation of mental 
tests see The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, 
Chapter V. 


105 


PSYCHOLOGY’ OF; DATER ADOQUESCDAGCE 


Some elements of intelligence have, however, been 
tested to a practical degree. A recent volume reports 
a very thorough set of tests in the case of a large 
number of high-school seniors in the State of Indiana. 
These tests have the same difficulty as many others in 
that they do not represent the average intelligence of 
our population. They represent rather a quite highly 
specialized group. Those with only average intelli- 
gence are seldom able to finish a high-school course. 
The boy or girl graduating from high school would 
therefore be placed in a relatively high classification if 
compared with a group of unselected adults. The 
difhculty of measuring such a group as this is seen 
when we realize that it is impossible to measure any 
mental ability by an absolute scale. We can measure 
temperature by reference to an absolute zero, or an 
arbitrary zero, but there is no such thing as an absolute 
zero in mental measurements. The most reliable in- 
dex which could be secured for the Indiana test was 
found to be the central tendency or median score of 
the total group, affected somewhat by the range of 
individual cases beyond this median score. Consider- 
ing the limitations these tests are decidedly useful. 

An examination of the Indiana tests indicates that — 
Over 51 per cent of the students who planned to go | 
to college made scores in the intelligence test above the © 
State median. Fifty-seven per cent of those who | 
planned to go to a liberal arts college made scores 
above the median, as did nearly 59 per cent of those 
planning to go to a technical school. This indicates, 


3 The Intelligence of High School Seniors, Book, New York, 1922. 
106 


al i nd 


DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY 


further, that our college groups who have been the 
subjects of many of our mental tests are a selected 
group of relatively high intellectual power. 

Other tests show a high correlation between general 
intelligence as thus measured and acceleration in prog- 
ress through the high school. Seventy-two per cent of 
those completing the high school in six semesters scored 
above the State median, while only twenty per cent 
scoring above the State median required eleven or 
twelve semesters. 

The relationship of intelligence to vocation.—The 
Indiana tests were accompanied by a questionnaire 
concerning the occupations or vocations selected by 
the students. Of those selecting science as an occu- 
pation, 73 per cent had scores above the State median. 
Next in the list for boys stands the ministry with 
63.34 per cent above the State median. Among occu- 
pations for girls law stands at the head, 66.70 per cent 
of those selecting law scoring above the State median. 
Journalism comes second, .66.67 per cent of those se- 
lecting journalism as a profession scoring above the 
State median. 

There are some interesting facts in this investigation 
concerning the selection of vocations. Sixty-four per 
cent of the boys among these high-school seniors have 
chosen their vocation and 60 per cent of the girls, but 
among over six thousand seniors, only sixteen occu- 
pations or lines of work are mentioned, which seems 
to indicate a need for wider vocational information. 
Of the boys, those going into the ministry, journalism 
and science rank intellectually above those of other 
occupational groups, while the girls who select jour- 

107 


PSYCHOLOGY ‘OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


nalism, social service, and law rank highest. However, 
it is to be noted that the brightest senior boys accord- 
ing to these tests selected science and engineering, 
while the brightest senior girls selected clerical work. 

From these and many tests which have been used 
with high-school and college students we may gain 
some information relative to such specialized groups. 
It appears from observations which have been made 
that the tests pick out those of poor mental ability 
much more accurately than those of good mental abil- 
ity. It is also to be noticed that sex differences in the 
mental functions measured seemed to be very nearly 
negligible. There are many elements in intellectual 
efficiency which are not shown by any mental tests thus 
far devised. There are, for example, some young 
people whose minds are very accurate but who work 
very slowly. On the other hand, there are some minds 
which work with great rapidity and are relatively in- 
accurate. There is rare value for many purposes in 
the possession of a mind which works quickly but in 
many relations the slower and more accurate mind may 
be much more desirable and efficient. Many quick 
minds are decidedly inaccurate. 

In a series of tests some years ago | discovered that 
many of my brighter students, judged by intelligence 
tests, were relatively less accurate than my duller 
students. Perhaps one reason for this may lie in an 
educational fault. A recent writer has shown that 
in our educational practice we place a certain premium 
upon the relatively careless work of the brilliant, rapid 
working student, so that a student many times feels 
that more is to be attained by working rapidly though 

108 


DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY 


carelessly, than by spending more time at a given 
task.4 

The Stanford Revision of the Binet-Simon tests 
places the intelligence of the average superior adult 
at the mental age of sixteen. This may be interpreted 
to mean that at the age of sixteen the elements which 
are measured in these tests are quite fully developed. 
It does not mean that there is no development beyond 
the age of sixteen. There still remains the possibility 
of measuring a vast number of other elements in hu- 
man mentality which develop beyond the age of six- 
teen and, indeed, in many cases far into adult life. 

Harmonious intellectual development.—As in the 
case of physical and emotional development, what is 
needed in intelligence is a well-rounded, harmonious 
balance. This does not consist merely in the acquisi- 
tion of facts in the memory or in the working out of 
any series of problems in reasoning. It requires, first 
of all, the wholesome development of the will and the 
moral nature. It requires all those attitudes toward 
life and its problems which make students energetic, 
conscientious, and efficient. Then, of course, it in- 
volves those definite elements of instruction, problem- 
atic situations, and intellectual exercises which are 
related to the actual life situations of our young people. 


MoRAL AND RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT 


There is a close relationship between the physical 
and mental harmonies discussed above and the har- 


4The author’s article, “Time and Accuracy as Related to 
Mental Tests,” was published in the Journal of Educational 
Psychology, March, 1921. 


109 


PSYCHOLOGY: OF TATER ADOLESCENCE 


monious development of the moral and religious life. 
Character is not developed in isolation from physical 
growth and is certain to be closely related with various 
phases of mental development. Thus religious educa- 
tion is not unconcerned with the problems of physical 
development, of a wholesome physical environment, 
and of the intellectual training of the schools. Indeed, 
many of the leaders in public-school education con- 
sider their problems more closely related to ours than 
some religious workers have been accustomed to think. 
It is the work of the public school to develop whole- 
some moral attitudes and produce not merely a highly 
developed intelligence but a set of physical, mental, and 
moral habits that will insure the further growth and 
proper use of moral character. There should be very 
thorough cooperation between all types of schools in 
the interest of a wholesome and balanced moral and 
religious life. 

Just as in the case of physical development and men- 
tal development there are various tendencies to be 
harmonized in the personality in the interest of whole- 
some personal ethics. The world needs a harmony of 
enthusiasm, high moral ideals, clear thinking about 
moral problems, vigorous emotional responses, dis- 
ciplined will, and common sense. Perhaps the greatest 
social need of our day is the development among our 
young people of a highly vigorous, practical reaction 
to moral social problems. Our young people, prop- 
erly guided and with a wholesome encouragement for 
the development of their moral and religious life, carry 
in their own hands the key to the moral progress and 
religious wholesomeness of the future. 


Tio 


DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY 


The complex elements in personality.—A discus- 
sion of harmonious development would not be com- 
plete without mention of the complicated factors which 
affect our conscious and unconscious life. Education 
is infinitely interesting because it deals with an infinity 
of conditions. There are as many hereditary patterns 
of life in our classes as there are students, and every 
student is differently affected by the varying and com- 
plicated influences of his life. Only a very small part 
of one’s mental processes are clearly conscious at one 
time, and many processes which deeply affect our con- 
sciousness and our behavior never rise above tthe 
threshold of awareness.® 

Every life is deeply, perhaps chiefly, affected by ele- 
ments which lie deep in the recesses of the subcon- 
scious. Forgotten troubles vex us and forgotten pleas- 
ures re-echo in our present joys. “A rich mentality or 
strong personality may be largely due to the richness 
of the subconscious life.” 


PROBLEMS 


1. What social institutions in your community are 
definitely contributing to physical, mental, and moral 
health ? 

2. Among your students are there any who are 
“queer” or odd? What is the attitude of the other 
students toward them? 

3. What sort of books do your students like to read? 
What sort of magazines? Is there any relation be- 
tween their tastes in reading and their general moral 
ideals? 


5 The Psychology of Early Adolescence, Mudge, Chapter VIII. 
6 The Unfolding of Personality, Mark, p. 189. 


LEt 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


4. Have you any students who seem abnormally 
shy? If so, in what activities of the class are they 
most interested? Has their social environment been 
the same as that of the rest of the class? 

5. Search the early writings of the great poets and 
novelists and see if you find the adolescent melancholy 
described in this chapter? 


Books FOR FuRTHER READING 


Talks to Teachers, James, page 190ff. 

Psychology of Religion, Starbuck, Chapter XIX. 

Psychology of Social Reconstruction, Patrick, Chap- 
tere Id. 

Psychology of Early Adolescence, Mudge, Chapter 
METS 


The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, 
Chapters V, VI, IX. 

The Intelligence of High School Seniors, Book. 

Religious Consciousness, Pratt, Chapter VI. 

Introduction to Psychology, Seashore, Chapter XXI. 

The Spiritual Life, Coe, Chapter I. 

The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets, Addams, 
Chapters IT, III, IV. 

Youth in Conflict, Van Waters. 


II2 


CHAPTER IX 
YOUTH AND LIFE WORK 


Frew human decisions are more important than the 
choice of a vocation, yet many young people care- 
lessly and almost fortuitously decide this important 
question. Many young men select a life occupation 
because it was the occupation of their fathers, and in 
many cases the influence of parents has determined a 
decision which should be largely based upon the nat- 
ural inclinations and abilities of the young person most 
concerned. Many, both young men and young women, 
have entered a given life-work because it is nearest at 
hand or because their knowledge of other occupations 
is decidedly limited. The problem of vocation is a most 
vital one, for it concerns not only one’s personal satis- 
faction and consequent personal efficiency, but it con- 
cerns fully as much the service which he may be 
able to render to the world. It is vastly important 
from the standpoint of society that each person ren- 
der his maximum service. It is also of high impor- 
tance that the motives for the life decisions involved in 
vocation be thoroughly worthy. 

Idealism.—As has been indicated in previous chap- 
ters, adolescent young people are normally marked by 
a tendency to idealism, to a desire for altruistic service. 
This human tendency may be encouraged or discour- 
aged. If throughout the earlier periods our boys and 
girls are surrounded by people of low ideals, if parents 

113 


PSYCHOLOGY (‘OF “LATER VADOEERSGHI Urs 


and teachers appeal to selfish and unworthy motives, 
there is not much chance for the idealistic and altruistic 
spirit to develop within them. It is a sad feature of 
some parts of our educational system that an undue 
emphasis is placed upon motives of self advancement, 
personal achievement, and success measured in terms 
of property and personal power. 

Selfish motives.——Many of our arguments for 
higher education have overstressed the self-seeking 
motives. Even college teachers and Christian minis- 
ters have emphasized them too strongly. Education 
has been pictured as a means whereby one can acquire 
personal power and financial success, and some adver- 
tisements of secondary and higher institutions of learn- 
ing have set forth, as a chief incentive, the fact that 
an educated man can make more money than one who 
is uneducated. The objection to this sort of appeal for 
education is not that the appeal of financial improve- 
ment is altogether unworthy but that it should be dis- 
tinctly secondary to other motives more idealistic in 
their nature. ; 

Idealistic motives, in the spirit of the highest moral 
interests and religious purposes, make a_ specially 
strong appeal. It has been proved again and again in 
the experience of leaders of young people that an 
appeal to the heroic, the self-sacrificing, the altruistic, 
is highly successful in determining life decisions of 
various sorts. The response of the young people in 
our colleges and universities to the call of the Student 
Volunteer Movement has demonstrated this fact. A 
great number of our finest young people have volun- 
teered, in case the opportunity comes, for that service 


114 


YOUTH AND LIFE WORK 


which is far removed from the selfish motives which 
often prompt vocational decisions—the service of the 
Christian Church in foreign mission fields. 

Need of guidance.— Young people need guidance in 
the selection of a vocation. Many of them have not 
had the opportunity of vocational direction in the high 
school, and even where such opportunities have been 
open to them there are many young people in later ado- 
lescence who have not definitely planned their lives. 
The time has now come when some definite decision 
must be made. The vocational plans made now are not 
merely for the next year or two; they are likely to be 
permanent and affect very seriously an entire active 
lifetime. Being still more or less suggestible, young 
people tend to respond to those life purposes which are 
presented to them. Some of these are very inadequate 
aims. The desire to accumulate money or own a great 
estate, the desire for a political position or for a high 
place in any activity of life—these are not adequate 
life purposes. The weakness of such aims is in their 
incompleteness. At best they are means for the attain- 
ment of some ultimate end. The worker with young 
people who definitely presents a worthy and complete 
motive for vocational decision takes advantage of the 
psychology of a completely organized life purpose. He 
presents not only the ambition to become a successful 
farmer, the owner of a large tract of land, but the 
ultimate ambition to be of service, through agricul- 
ture, to the world, to give his labor and thought that 
people through him may be fed and clothed and edu- 
cated and Christianized. It can be shown that a voca- 
tion is not a complete end in itself, that beyond the 


115 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


vocation is the ideal of some service which one may 
render. 


PRINCIPLES FOR VOCATIONAL SELECTION 


What are the principles of vocational guidance 
which should be presented to young people and to 
which their natures will normally respond? 

1. The only adequate vocational purposes are social 
purposes. Back of vocational choice should be a thor- 
ough appreciation of the meaning of. social service, 
the contribution which one may make to the com- 
munity, the state, the nation, the world of men. The 
value of the profession of medicine, for example, is not 
in developing a personal estate through the ability to 
earn large fees, but in bringing health to people who 
are ill and in preserving the health of those who are 
well. 

Fundamental to all vocational decisions should be 
the high valuing of human interest, sympathy, con- 
sideration, and all that Christianity has invested in the 
term “love” for men. It is a social spirit of service 
which is necessary in order that we may make worthy 
life decisions. 

2. Having the desire to be of altruistic service, one 
should select an industry or profession which clearly 
satisfies some social need. This, of course, means the 
elimination of any occupation which is not of decided 
social value in the world. The world does not need 
vocationally capable saloon keepers or gamblers or ex- 
ploiters of child labor, but it does need men who will 
provide us with food, clothing, shelter, transportation, 
the essentials of health and sanitation, wholesome — 

116 


YOUTH AND LIFE WORK 


laws, intellectual and religious teaching, works of art, 
and a vast number of other things which satisfy the 
needs of man. In selecting a vocation, some human 
need should be distinctly appreciated, and whatever 
be the vocation chosen, it should be seen to contribute 
wholesomely and effectively to that need. No vocation 
is valid and valuable which does not have in it an ele- 
ment of production or contribution to men’s needs. 

3. It is of great importance that the vocation se- 
lected shall be one to which one is adapted. Native 
capacities differ widely with individuals. These ca- 
pacities should be ascertained and decisions based upon 
them. An occupation for which one is not well 
adapted may limit one’s usefulness, or even cancel it. 
Some people, because of having chosen the wrong oc- 
cupation, are really a drag upon society rather than a 
help, and many people because they chose in ignorance 
or by chance are far less efficient members of society 
than they might be. 

4. One’s vocational choice should be made, as far 
as possible, in a careful, scientific fashion, There has 
been too much stumbling into vocations, enlisting in a 
vocation after a brief consideration or in a moment of 
enthusiasm. Enthusiasm has its place, but it should 
not prevent a very careful study of one’s investment 
of life. 

Self-analysis——A thorough analysis of one’s traits 
and abilities should be a part of vocational decision. 
One should as far as possible know what abilities he 
possesses, what his natural aptitudes are. In some 
cases there are vocational tests which may be useful. 
Thus by the use of a series of tests devised through 


117 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


years of experimenting, one may determine with rela- 
tive accuracy one’s native musical ability. The author 
was in close touch with the use of some of these tests 
during the experimental period and found that a num- 
ber of young men who believed themselves incapable 
of singing with any degree of accuracy, really had 
considerable native ability to sing. They had been 
brought up to consider singing an effeminate pastime, 
or had been otherwise discouraged from attempting 
to sing, and had never learned the fundamentals of 
singing, which might have given them much satisfac- 
tion. On the other hand, many young women were 
surprised to find that although they had spent very 
much time in piano practice, they really had decidedly 
inferior musical ability. Some of them seemed actu- 
ally relieved to find that their dislike for music practice 
was not their own fault but was, rather, due to a 
natural limitation. Had such a test been available in 
their childhood, both these classes of young people 
might have been greatly benefited. Vast sums of 
money are spent in our country every year for the 
musical training of people who have inferior musical 
ability. By means of the test above discussed it is 
possible to determine whether it is advisable for a 
young person to prepare for the professional career 
of the musician. Unfortunately, the number of voca- 
tional tests is relatively few, but it is possible for every 
young person to examine himself to some extent as to 
his native ability. 

General and particular abilities—Among the 
items of information concerning one’s personal traits 
and abilities should be an appreciation of one’s general 

118 


YOUTH AND LIFE WORK 


traits and a knowledge of one’s abilities with reference 
to particular vocations. The late Dr. Frank Parsons, 
who was director of a vocation bureau in Boston, used 
to ask the applicants for vocational advice the fol- 
lowing questions: 


If all the boys in Boston were gathered here to- 
gether and a naturalist were classifying them as he 
would classify plants and animals, in what division 
would you belong? 

In what respects, if any, would you excel the mass 
of young men, and in what respects, if any, would you 
be inferior to most? 

Would the classifying scientist put you in the me- 
chanical group or the professional group, the executive 
group or the laboring group? 

Would he class you as artistic, as intellectual, or 
physical, quick or slow, careful or careless, enthusias- 
tic or unenthusiastic, effective or ineffective, etc.? 


There are many lists of personal data, traits, and 
characteristics, found in various works on vocational 
guidance. Such a chart as the following may be sig- 
nificant either for self analysis in vocational choices 
or for the use of one who is estimating the vocational 
possibilities of another. This chart gives a list of 
qualities and provides for a measurement of the de- 
gree in which each of them is found. Thus the first 
quality is health. It makes a great difference with 
reference to certain vocations whether one has an un- 
usually low degree of health, that is, is decidedly 
sickly, or a low degree, somewhat below the average, 
or medium health, or good health, that is above the 
average, or exceptionally good health. In the chart 
the various characteristics, as in the case of a given 


II9 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


young person, are measured. By connecting with lines 
the points marked, one can get a certain graphic repre- 
sentation of this personality. Of course the qualities 
chosen are not all the qualities which might be listed, 
but they may suggest a list of qualities which you 
yourself may prepare. | 


CHART OF PERSONAL QUALITIES 


QUALITIES | DEGREE IN WHICH FOUND 


Unusually 
Low Degree 
Unusually 
High Degree 


—_——$—— | — | 








en 
8. 
= 
- 


FON GT Vee ee site Bally sce iW etaia x 


Promipiness eo lo alee eauueare 

SV SERITA MSE eNO Fin ata a aes 

Reliability tee cian os x 
POTESIBIG Cn a Rion Daas x 
Knowledge of human nature. . x 
SVUNDALU Me ye ves en.) Omen rare x 

CIB ITUUOTE RICCO as Pane neta) -* 


ae 
@ 
bap | 
mn 
-. 
n 
ct 
¢?) 
=) 
°Q 
oO 
wr A OM 


Pleasant speech iic/s hee. sb x 
Imagination (ie i ee ae x 
Quickness of movements..... x 

SO: bangs: ws. titteewis.bite x 
Interest in reading.......... x 
Interest in sports and games. . x 
Interest in serious study...... x 

Interest wivart, 4) pa eee x 


120 


YOUTH AND LIFE WORK 


In addition to the qualities indicated in the chart, 
one should make a list of the qualities needed for any 
particular vocation which is in question, and estimate 
himself on the basis of this list as to his fitness for the 
given work. Of course self-analysis is difficult but an 
attempt is important. 

One must not only estimate his own character- 
istics in order wisely to choose a vocation but must 
have a considerable fund of knowledge concerning 
vocations. In the early days of American history, 
vocational decisions were relatively simple. There 
were few trades, and these were nearly all familiar 
to the whole people. Life was largely agricultural, 
and a large portion of the work which is now done by 
special trades was done in the home. There were few 
professions. Indeed, until relatively recent times the 
term “learned profession’ has been applied only to 
the ministry, medicine, and law. But in our day there 
is a great complication of trades, professions, and oc- 
cupations. The work of the world has become special- 
ized, and our increasing scientific knowledge and in- 
dustrial advancement have made possible great numbers 
of special types of work hitherto unknown. For ex- 
ample, the surveyor and mechanic of earlier times 
have given place to a multitude of specialized engineer- 
ing professions, each of which has its own technique 
and consequently demands people of characteristic 
abilities. 

It is a very great service to young people who are 
not acquainted with the wide variations in modern vo- 
cational life to bring to them such information, and 
many a worker with young people has the opportunity 

121 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


of suggesting lines of possible activity in which they 
may be of great service to society. 

It is very important that young people shall not be 
forced by circumstances or by the preferences of their 
parents or other friends into ill-chosen vocations. The 
efficiency of society is largely hindered by the vast 
number of misplaced men and women—square pegs 
in round holes. The land is full of inefficient physi- 
cians and lawyers who might be good farmers or mer- 
chants or engineers. There are young people with 
unusual gifts for given occupations who have never 
discovered the opportunity of such work. For exam- 
ple, Doctor Parsons tells of a young man of twenty- 
two who seemed fairly successful as a clerk of a small 
store, but he did not like commerce. He was passion- 
ately fond of nature, and used to walk ten or fifteen 
miles to be in the woods. A consultation with a vo- 
cational expert showed him his opportunity to prepare 
himself for the government forestry service, and his 
adviser says, “I have never seen a boy devour science 
with more enthusiasm than this lover of trees displays 
in absorbing the principles and practice of forestry.” 
If we can, by suggesting possible vocations or by 
directing young people to the services of vocational 
experts, reduce the inefficiency and waste due to the 
haphazard selection of occupations in this country, we 
shall have rendered a real service. 

7. An element in vocational choice which may be 
developed throughout the years of preparation, is the 
spirit of initiative. We who are older should not make 
vocational choices for the young men and women. We 
may guide them as far as possible to choosing intelli- 

122 


YOUTH AND LIFE WORK 


gently, but education in a democracy should be directed 
to the development of individual initiative. An aris- 
tocracy or an autocracy may be satisfied with training 
young people for predetermined places in life. A 
democracy acts upon the saying of Plato, “All men are 
not quite like each other,’ and seeks to develop each 
one according to his individual ability so that he may 
be most highly efficient in the society in which he lives. 
Thus all of education should relate itself to the devel- 
opment of those habits of life, those judgments and 
principles upon which a vocation must be based. A 
vocation should not be chosen in a moment. It should 
be the result of a long process, and should test one’s 
entire previous training. Just what young people de- 
cide to do and the spirit in which they decide to do 
it is a most valuable test of the entire process of edu- 
cation leading up to this decision. 

8. A vocation should always be chosen, in the light 
of one’s thorough knowledge of it and of one’s self, 
as a divine call to service. No one should enter the 
Christian ministry who does not feel a call from God, 
but it is far from the Christian ideal of life service to 
limit such a call to this one important work. No one 
should become a physician or a lawyer or a merchant 
or an engineer or a horticulturist or a carpenter with- 
out feeling that his work is in response to a divine call. 
This means that life in its vocational aspect is to be 
considered as a mission, as a high responsibility in 
which we are to serve God and serve mankind. We 
are all stewards of our own time as of our wealth, and 
all of life should be organized with reference to this 
stewardship. 

123 


PSYCHOLOGY, OF iLATER ADOLESCENCE 


The fields of special service——In this connection it 
should be said that we as leaders of young people 
should direct their thought toward those vocations 
which represent for those who are qualified for them, 
a special opportunity for altruistic service. The world 
needs teachers, preachers, deaconesses and mission- 
aries. It needs social service workers of a vast variety. 
It needs leaders for service enterprises in the interest 
of the sick, the distressed, and the strangers in our 
cities. Do not hold up any one vocation as superior 
to all the rest, but indicate the great possibilities in the 
types of work above described for those who are 
qualified for them. There are many misapprehensions 
concerning the service of the church. Many young 
men think that the ministry is a matter of preaching 
sermons to adult members of a congregation, attending 
social functions, and visiting the sick. Many young 
people think of missionary work as a rather narrow 
round of duties. In reality, the Christian ministry 
and the work of Christian missions present a vast 
variety of needs and opportunities. The ideal 
Christian minister is a community leader, active in 
a variety of matters which were outside the field 
of the circuit rider of days past; and a wide variety of 
occupations are involved in our foreign missionary 
work. 

The need of the Christian spirit in all occupations 
should be brought to the attention of our young people. 
Among the chief needs of a democracy like ours is the 
need for political leaders and government officials 
who combine a democratic spirit with administrative 
_ efficiency. For young men and women deliberately to 
124 


YOUTH AND LIFE WORK 


plan to devote their lives, in a Christian spirit, to this 
sort of public service would be a very hopeful and 
wholesome thing. 


VOCATIONS FOR WoMEN 


Workers with young women should acquaint them- 
selves with the wide variety of vocations open to them. 
The number of vocations commonly open to women 
is less than those for men. However, in recent years 
there has been a very remarkable extension of the 
number of opportunities for women. Woman has en- 
tered, at least in isolated instances, most of the types 
of work in which men are engaged. One recent book 
gives the following list, showing a wide variety of 
fields of activity. 

Office girl, file clerk, typist, dictaphone operator, 
stenotypist, multigrapher, public stenographer, private 
secretary, bookkeeper, accountant, cashier, cash girl, 
stock girl, saleswoman, buyer, professional shopper, 
demonstrator, floor clerk, desk clerk, room clerk, food 
checker, waitress, employment agent, real estate agent, 
advance agent, insurance agent, advertising agent, press 
agent, booking agent, telephone operator, telegraph 
operator, elevator operator, tearoom manager, florist, 
model, dressmaker, milliner, hair dresser, manicurist, 
theater treasurer, usher, detective, commercial trav- 
eler, home-maker, dietitian, social worker, nurse, 
physician, oculist, dentist, pharmacist, bacteriologist, 
newspaper writer, teacher, librarian, statistician, jew- 
eler, interior decorator, landscape gardener, architect, 
photographer, costume illustrator, magazine illustra- 
tor, novelty painter, scenic artist, musician, pianist, 

125 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


actress, in addition.to a variety of types of factory 
work. 

An examination of this list will reveal its deficien- 
cies, as there are many types of work in which women 
are largely engaged which are not represented here. 
It is of very great importance in these days that young 
women who are looking for vocational opportunities 
should be able to find themselves and find their life- 
work satisfactorily. Among the vocations for women 
listed above, none will doubt that the chief vocation 
is that of home-maker, especially if used in its broader 
significance. Vocational agencies should not neglect 
the strengthening of the American home and the prep- 
aration of young women for home life and the respon- 
sibilities of marriage and family care. The training 
of children and the various arts and sciences which 
enter into a wholesome home life are of the greatest 
importance. In this connection it may be said em- 
phatically that not only the young women but the 
young men should be so trained that they will be in- 
telligent and efficient in the responsibilities of the home 
life. Our chief task, after all, is to prepare the way 
for the generation to follow us. 


THE BROADER SERVICE 


In selecting a vocation, the young man or woman 
should seriously consider this great life task a highly 
important personal contribution to the welfare of the 
world. Into it should be poured all the idealistic en- 
ergy of your young life. But the service interests of 
our young people should not be confined to vocation. 
Many of our greatest contributions to the welfare of 

126 


YOUTH AND LIFE WORK 


the world are in a sense by-products of life or the re- 
sults of extra-vocational activities of various kinds. 
Perhaps the greatest service we can render to the world 
is rearing a family of children who may accomplish 
social ends which to us are impossible. Certainly, in the 
many social relationships of life are opportunities for 
service which our young people should be encouraged 
to render. Man liveth not by bread alone, and his life 
is far more than making a living. Man is a member 
of society, of various social groups, and as a social 
being he has a variety of responsibilities. 

Guiding the service motive.—The impulse to serv- 
ice is one which needs training and guidance. Our 
young people not only need guidance as to how to 
earn their living but guidance as to how to spend their 
leisure, relate themselves to political and social prob- 
lems, be of service in a vast number of social situa- 
tions. High standards of social activity may be devel- 
oped in our young people, since they are normally 
idealistic and altruistic. 

There is in our young people not only a native de- 
sire to serve, but an equally native tendency to ques- 
tion the established methods and customs of service. 
Young people are not willing to accept statements on 
the authority of older people. They are idealists, but 
with an increasing insistence upon the practical appli- 
cation of ideals, and in the endeavor to apply their 
ideals they many times undervalue and perhaps dis- 
regard the ideals of others. Sometimes a principle 
which has been proved in the past to be socially valu- 
able is discarded by young people among the wreck- 
age of those things which seem to them impractical 

127 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


in the concrete situations of life. It is the first 
tendency of young people in questioning an old 
ideal, to substitute an ideal of their own, often in- 
adequately demonstrated. This is where guidance 
is needed. Young people many times do not know 
all the facts which lie behind a given social principle 
or ideal. It is important that they have the oppor- 
tunity of wide observation and discrimination so that 
their standards of life may not be founded in their 
individual experience merely but in social ex- 
perience. 

In particular it is important that sympathetic and 
thorough guidance be at the disposal of young people 
whose social environment is far from ideal. There 
are young people who are distinctly skeptical as to 
the value or power of wholesome family life. Investi- 
gation may show that the reason for this doubt lies 
in the type of families with which they are familiar. 
Thus on the basis of an unbalanced social environment, 
an environment of poverty or of riches or of sordid 
materialism, one apparently has real reason to question 
motives and ideals. It is necessary for such young 
people—and there are many of them in our church 
schools—to become familiar, by some means, with the 
existence of a more wholesome atmosphere. This may 
be accomplished through making young people living 
in unwholesome places acquainted with people, fam- 
ilies, social groups living under wholesome moral con- 
ditions. There is still something of the hero wor- 
shiper in young people, and the character of a teacher 
or other idealistic leader may be of the greatest im- 
portance in its influence upon their lives. 

128 


YOUTH AND LIFE WORK 


PROBLEMS 


1. Try to estimate your own qualities according to 
the chart. 

2. What vocations, other than those listed, are ap- 
propriate for women? 

3. How large a proportion) of the social leaders 
whom you know are young people? 

4. What community projects would appeal to the 
members of your class? 

5. Why does the college fraternity appeal to stu- 
dents? 

6. What influences has the war left on the young 
people of your community? 

7. What narrow attitudes do you observe in your 
young people? Suggest definite activities they could 
undertake that would remedy these attitudes. 


Books FOR FURTHER READING 


Choosing a Vocation, Parsons. 

The Girl and the Job, Hoerle and Saltzberg. 

Vocations for Girls, Laselle and Wiley. 

Builders of the Kingdom, LeSourd, Chapters I and IT. 

The Vocational Guidance of Youth, Bloomfield. 

Vocational and Moral Guidance, Davis. 

The Spiritual Life, Coe, Chapter V. 

Handbook for Workers with Young People, Thomp- 
son, Chapters X, XI, and XII. 

Education in Religion and Morals, Coe, Chapter VIII. 

A Social Theory of Religious Education, Coe, Chap- 
ter XVI. 

Principles of Educational Sociology, Clow, Chapters 
XIII and XIV. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapter XIX. 

Out Into Life, Horton. 

Finding My Place, Moxcey. 


CHAPTER X 
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 


LATER adolescence normally completes the process 
through which youth develops a wholesome adult re- 
ligion. There is, however, no sudden leap from the 
adolescent to the mature type of religious experience. 
Like all other elements in personality, the religious 
life is a growth, and sometimes in later adolescence 
there are traces of the experience of earlier periods, 
even those of early adolescence or childhood. 

Religious development.—The religious experience 
of childhood is very different from that of adult life. 
Usually, in the minds of children God is a great man 
with exaggerated human powers. © 

In another volume the author has shown that chil- 
dren picture God in visual terms much more than 
adults do. Many of them think of God as a man, old 
or young, according to the impressions gained from 
the teachings of older people, who is somewhere in the 
sky above. Some think of God as in the clouds. Some 
picture him as having a great record book before him. 
Many think of God as always watching to see what 
they do, often conceiving of him as a sort of detective 
or policeman who watches for wrongdoing, although 
others think of God as a kindly, fatherly friend, who 
watches to protect them. Of course much of our 
teaching is responsible for this, but it is doubtful if 

130 


RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 


children can get any satisfactory idea of God that does 
not partake of this anthropomorphic character. 

It is clear that the form of these visual images of 
God is largely determined by the teachings which 
children receive. Some picture God as a young man, 
evidently through the pictures of Jesus. Others con- 
ceive of him as an old man with a flowing beard. A 
large proportion of Jewish children seem to have, 
when they think of God, a visual image of fire or of “a 
mountain of fire,” the origin of which is evidently in 
the dominant Jewish teaching. But whatever its par- 
ticular content, visual imagery seems to take a large 
place in the religious conceptions and experiences of 
childhood. 

The external world, the world of sight and hearing 
and touch and taste, constitutes a greater part of the 
child’s world than of the world of adult life. It is 
natural that God should be external to childhood—a 
being away off somewhere rather than an immanent 
presence. The internalization of religion, which is 
the normal experience of an adult, depends upon a long 
process of development through childhood and adoles- 
cence. 

Adolescent development.—The adolescent young 
person is between the externalized religion of child- 
hood and ‘the religion of the adult. His world is in 
process of being internalized. He is developing the 
life of feeling and emotion by which his inner universe 
is being formed. An examination of several hundreds 
of cases shows the following apparent results. The 
statistical value of these cases is limited, but they are 
not without significance. Four age groups show an 

131 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


apparently dominant visual imagery of God in the 
following proportions: 


Childrett 0. cae ee ee) a eee 7790 
High-school “Students 2). Jn... see 72% 
College Students: P0222 11% 
Advanced ) Students eae One ae 0% 


The final zero above does not mean that the ad- 
vanced students consulted had no visual imagery of 
God, but that it was relatively insignificant, the more 
dominant elements in religious experience being the 
intimate feelings of relation toward an indwelling and 
immanent God. 

Persisting visual imagery.—Many people in later 
adolescence and adult life confess the persistence of 
visual elements in their experience of God. One says, 
“Sometimes when I am very tired, a mental picture of 
an understanding father’s face seems to flash and dis- 
appear.” Others say that a visual image “adds a sort 
of reality and assurance” to their experience. There 
are doubtless many, even in adult life, whose visual 
imagery is more relatively significant, who retain more 
or less of the objective relationship toward a distant 
God that is characteristic of childhood and the earlier 
adolescent years. ) 

The religion of later adolescence has an inner warmth 
and intimacy that arises in very complex feelings and 
emotions. It is a spiritual fellowship such as was im- 
possible in childhood. It is marked by vital personal 
attitudes toward a God who is a Spirit, a presence, a 
deeply intimate factor in the lives of his creatures. 

Temperamental differences——Attempts to stand- 

132 


RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 


ardize religious experience have always failed. Expe- 
rience differs with the personalities of the experiencers. 
Some fairly broad classifications for human temper- 
aments have been made, but human personalities pre- 
sent an infinite variety of blended traits. We may say 
that Henry Brown is one of the “sanguine” or 
“prompt-weak” temperament, but there are wide dif- 
ferences between him and John Thompson, whom we 
would also classify as of the sanguine type. This 
being true, we cannot reduce adolescent religious ex- 
periences even to four temperamental classes without 
leaving many important life factors unanalyzed. 

Later adolescence is a period of more controlled 
emotions than any earlier period, but there is still a 
degree of emotional energy which distinguishes this 
period from adult life. Adult emotions are normally 
deep but controlled and refined or sublimated. Those 
of adolescence are close-linked with the general high 
nervous and physical vigor of life. But some adoles- 
cent young people are especially suggestible and emo- 
tional. Those differences appear in their religious atti- 
tudes, and are carried over into adult life. 

Practical problems.—How the church and the 
church school may best minister to a diversity of reli- 
gious types is among our most serious problems. To 
some extent it is met by the existence of various de- 
nominations. Some appeal to the clear-thinking, in- 
tellectual type, others to the highly emotional type, 
and still others to the practical worker type. Unfor- 
tunately, most of us are introduced into churches not 
by our temperamental natures and needs but by those 
of our ancestors, or by what seems to be chance. 


133 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


Then we who live in cities may sometimes choose the 
particular parish to which we are temperamentally 
adapted. But this, too, is frequently not practically 
possible nor socially desirable. How can the church 
and its school be, properly and helpfully, “all things 
to all men’? Clearly, the leaders of youth must under- 
stand the various types of youth and consequently 
be continually aware of the variety of needs. Cer- 
tainly, we should introduce into our program a balance 
of emotional and intellectual and practical activities. 
Probably such a balance of factors in religious devel- 
opment will restrain the emotional excesses of some 
and encourage others who are emotionally diffident to 
self-expression. It will prevent the overintellectua!l- 
ization of religion in some and unthinking response 
to suggestion in others. It will reveal to some the need 
for works of social service and to others the spiritual 
motive by which such service 1s made most effective 
and constant. This balanced type of religious teaching 
is thus championed by Professor Coe: 


To seek to experience religious emotion, or, rather, 
to put oneself in the way of experiencing it, is as reas- 
onable as any other part in religious aspiration. To 
take feeling out of religion would be as absurd as to 
take parental or conjugal fondness out of the family. 
Yet it is not possible to maintain the family solely, or 
even chiefly, by reliance upon feeling. What we pro- 
test against is one-sidedness; what we plead for is 
symmetry. Religion ought to rest upon and call into 
exercise all the faculties of the mind. 


Developing the individual—One of the needed 
lessons for workers with young people is that our 


134 


RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 


students must be treated as individual persons. We 
cannot successfully treat the masses with one prescrip- 
tion. Effective teaching means variety of work and 
methods in our classes and personal acquaintance with 
our individual students. Childhood is a period for 
developing habits which the race has found good. It 
is properly a period of conformity and obedience. 
But with adolescence comes a new sense of individual 
worth. Now come those forces which are to make 
the child a strong, self-directing unit in society. A 
degree of nonconformity is natural to adolescence. 
“Whoso would be a man,’ says Emerson, “must be 
a nonconformist.” “The function of adolescence,” 
writes Starbuck, “is to lay the foundation through self- 
realization for strong, healthy and vigorous manhood 
and womanhood.” 

The social ideal.— But throughout adolescence there 
is developing another center of life-interest. Increas- 
ingly the social world is overshadowing, in the normal 
mind, the world which centers in the self. In later 
adolescence the vicarious nature of life—self for 
others, the individual for society—should be empha- 
sized. So a large element in our teaching should be 
the social, altruistic element of applied human brother- 
liness. For now as perhaps never before the normal 
life.demands an expression in service. During early 
and middle adolescence our boys and girls have been 
finding themselves; now they must, in order to follow 
the normal line of development, lose themselves in 
worthy service. ) 

The condition of human progress is the utilization 
of youth. The spirit of youth, keen and thoughtful, 


135 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


impelled by wholesomely developed emotion, applied 
to worthy tasks and waiting problems—this is a great 
need of the world. One of the chief needs of the 
church is a certain carrying-over of adolescence into 
adult life, together with the actual utilizing of youth 
in the service of the Kingdom. In a peculiar sense it 
seems to be true that Christianity keeps men active and 
interested in life with its current moral problems even 
to old age. 

Dangers of the period.—The teacher of a class of 
young people must be acquainted with the personal 
and temperamental nature of his individual students 
in order to be of help to them in solving their perplex- 
ing life problems. Later adolescence is a period of 
reflection and criticism and the developing of a work- 
ing philosophy of life. The keen-minded youth in- 
sists upon thinking all things through for himself. He 
is no longer satisfied to accept another’s convictions or 
authorities as his own. It is a time of doubt and un- 
certainty for many young people. There are special 
problems for those whose studies reveal new principles 
of science and philosophy which they cannot readily 
adjust to their earlier body of thought. Wise guidance 
is greatly needed; not the authority which may satisfy 
a child but the reasoned and seasoned wisdom which 
challenges confidence and demands a friendly respect. 


“There is more faith in honest doubt, 
Believe me, than in half the creeds.” 


The honest doubt of youth is not an unwholesome 
thing. Often it is faith in the noblest and most ideal- 
istic principles seeking for a reasonable expression. 

136 


RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 


It is a rather general characteristic of adolescence, 
judging from Starbuck’s studies, that almost all the 
religious doubts begin between the ages of eleven and 
twenty, with a few scattered ones during the twenties. 
This period of doubt is not necessarily an inevitable 
characteristic of adolescence, but it is certainly a very 
common experience in young people to question au- 
thority and ask the reasons for things. This may not 
be an upsetting process, although a wrong type of 
guidance through childhood and the earlier periods of 
adolescence may lead to some very painful experiences 
of readjustment. 

Professor Athearn suggests two ways to meet the 
needs of the honest doubters among our young people. 
The first way is to throw about the doubter a social 
wall of those who have more faith and lead him in this 
environment to apply himself to idealistic service for 
humanity. The second is to meet his doubts and ques- 
tions frankly and freely and seek to broaden his out- 
look upon new realms of truth. Both these methods 
should be used. Honest thinking and honest service 
will do much to correct our errors of moral and 
spiritual vision. 

The serious need of thoughtful leadership in the in- 
tellectual problems of religion cannot be overempha- 
sized. Young college students report that the reli- 
gious services of the church help them solve their 
problems of personal ethics and inspire them to lives 
of service but do not aid in the solution of their intel- 
lectual problems. If this is true, it is vastly important 
that ministers and all other teachers of young people 
prepare to meet these often unsatisfied needs. 


137 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


A teacher’s vision.—The dangers of the teachers of 
young people are just as real as the dangers of the 
young people themselves. Perhaps our chief danger 
is that we shall misinterpret tags and labels or arbitrary 
rules. Sometimes by identifying Christianity with a 
type of emotional experience or with one’s ability or 
practice in taking part in religious meetings we have 
emphasized a secondary expression of religion rather 
than its most vital elements. There are many sensi- 
tive souls who do not feel free to express their deep- 
est personal experiences in public. It is important that 
we recognize religious experience in its wide variety 
of forms and that we provide for our young people 
means of religious self-expression and programs of 
activity in which all may whole-heartedly join. We 
should utilize the ability of some to occupy the con- 
spicuous places in our religious meetings. We should 
also recognize the ability of others as it expresses 
itself somewhat differently. To prevent misunder- 
standing our young people we must be much with 
them, study them, not as mere specimens of human 
biology, but as vital personalities, as understandingly 
as may be and in the spirit of sympathy. 

Applied Christianity—No exposition of Christian- 
ity that stops with theology will satisfy the idealistic 
soul of our young people. There is current among 
them a growing belief, often amounting to a profound 
conviction, that religion may and should bring order 
out of the social chaos of the world. With sympathetic 
and wise guidance the force of youth applied to the 
world’s problems will contribute to progress as nothing 
else can. In the heart of youth is a vision, sometimes 

138 


RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE 


vague and indistinct but vital and significant, of the 
kingdom of God. Give youth a consecrated and in- 
telligent leadership, which really believes in the ap- 
plicability of Christianity to the needs of the world, 
and the power of the floodtide of developing life will 
carry the world forward toward this divine consum- 
mation. 

It should not be forgotten that there is in normal 
young people a spirit of idealism which may nor- 
mally lift a system of religion into a deep personal 
experience. Whatever the theology of our young peo- 
ple may be, there are certain native tendencies to reli- 
gious mysticism which should, I think, be recognized. 
This may express itself, as in the case of Wordsworth, 
in a feeling of a presence in nature, or it may express 
itself in a sense of an intimate inner relationship with 
God. It is such a consciousness of contact with real- 
ity beyond the perception of our senses which makes 
adolescence the time when poets and artists as well as 
religious leaders must be developed. 

Mysticism does not necessarily mean, as some have 
been inclined to think, an erratic and unreasonable 
superstition. It may relate itself to a very reasonable 
life philosophy but it is actively or potentially present 
in the life experiences of most of our young people. 
Certainly, a wholesome system of religious develop- 
ment will encourage the harmonization of this mystical 
consciousness with the highest moral and religious 
conceptions. 

PROBLEMS 

1. Of your class whom would you call upon for an 

inspiring speech on a moral question? Why? 


139 


PSYCHOLOGY OF LATER ADOLESCENCE 


2. Describe the eeueiins activities of young people 
of your acquaintance and indicate their relation to 
temperament. 

3. Ascertain the ages at which the members of 
your class made a definite decision to live a Christian 
life. 

4. What degree of attention do the young people’s 
classes you know give to social service? In which are 
they more interested, the doctrines of Christianity or 
the application of Christianity ? 


Books FOR FURTHER READING 


The Religious Consciousness, Pratt, Chapter VI. 

The Spiritual Life, Coe, Chapters III and V. 

The God-Ex perience, Mudge, Chapters I and II. 

The Psychology of Adolescence, Tracy, Chapter XIII. 

The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity, Cut- 
ten, Chapter XIX. 

The Girl, Dewar, Chapter X. 

The Coming Generation, Forbush, Chapter XXXII. 

Adolescence, Hall, Vol. II, Chapter XIV. 

The Psychology of Religion, Starbuck. 

The Youth and the Nation, Moore. 

The Psychology of Religion, Coe. 

A Social Theory of Religious Education, Coe. 

The Psychology of Early Adolescence, Mudge, Chap- 
ter X, 

The Psychology of Middle Adolescence, Moxcey, 
Chapter X. 

The Pupil, Barclay, Chapter XI. 

Life in the Making, Barclay and others, Chapters 
XVIII and XX. 

Girlhood and Character, Moxcey, Chapter x xs 

Handbook for Workers with Young People, Thomp- 
son. 


140 


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